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CENTENNIAL 



DISCOUESE, 



DELIVERED IN 



AYI L L I A M S T O W N, M ASS., 



NOVEMBER 19, ICS5, 



BY 



M:A.S01Sr N^OBLE. 



/ 'O- 



[^ U.S.A. 



NORTH ADA:\IS, MASS : 

J.VMES T. ROBINSON t CO., PlUNlEliS. 

1865. 

F 



STATEMENT. 



Tho Kopnrt of the Coiiunitteo ai>iioliile(l to make arrangements for the celc- 
bnil ion of tlic " Centennial " lu'rewitli published, is perhaps the best introduetion 
to the Address whieh eoidd be f,'iveii. 

The proyramnie laid down in the rei)ort was substantially earriod out. 

The Uev. Dr. II(ii)kins presided in the niorninf^and was assisted in the seiTlces 
by two former I'astors ol the Chureli, — Uev. Addison Ballard and Kev. Joseph 
Alden, D. 1). 

In the afternoon, Uev. Mr. Seymour, Pastor of the Jlethodist Kpi.'copal Church, 
presiiU'd, and was assisted by I'rof. All)crt Hoi)kins ainl Uev. Calvin Durfec. 

The " Conferenee Meeting" in the evening, was eonlinued for two hours. In 
the absenee of Uev. Lurius E. .Smith, of the I'.aplist Clmreh, Uev. Mason Xoblo 
was requested to eonduet the serviees. Addresses were made by the Uev. I")r. 
Alden, Uev. Mr. Durlee, Uev. Mr. IJallard, Uev. John .S.Whitman, Uev. Dr. Hopkins, 
S. Southworth, Ksri., and Hon. Joseph White. These addresses were intermingled 
•with prayers ami singing of a very fervent and animated charaeter, and tlie im- 
pression made upon tlie great congregation was so deep and pleasant that aU 
seemed to regret that the time for adjournment had arrived. 

In the early part of the meeting a munber of letters were read, from former 
residents of Williamstown, regretting their necessary absence, and expressing 
their ilecp sjTupathy with the meeting. 

It was also voted unanimously to re(iuest a copy of tho " Centennial Address" 
for publication, and a committee of three — Henry L. Sabin, M.D., Keyes Dan- 
forth, Ks(i., and S. Southworth, Ksq. — were appointed for that purpose. 

On motion of I'rof. I'erry, it was also resolved that the same committee retiuest 
the Hon. Joseph White to furnish the facts of his address for publication; and 
also to prepare any other proceedings of this mceling for publication, wluch they 
might select lor such a purpose. 

In accordance with this resolution, the letters from some of our absent frienfla, 
and the remarks of Hon. Joseph White, will be found ia the Appendix. 



EEPOET OF COMMITTEE. 

The Committee appointea at a meeting held in the Lecture Room, July 2r., ISfi."?, 
to make arrangements for the celebration of the settlement of our Town, and 
the ordmation of the first Pastor, have the honor to announce 
• That they immediately entereil into a correspondence with the Rev. INIason 
Koble, Chaplain of the U. S. Xaval Academy, refpiesting hhn to deliver a Centen- 
nial Address in this Town at some time during the present autumn, and that Mr. 
Isohle consented to deliver si;ch an Address at .such time as the Committee miglit 
<^icsi^iatc. • 

In the examination of the ancient rccoj-ds of the Town, it was ascertained that 
though the call to Mr. Whitman AVelch to the work of the ministry in this Town 
•was given on the 2Gth of July, 17G5, yet it was not till. October •2'2d, of the same 
year, — exactly one hundred years this day* — that Richard Stratton, Josiah Hosford 
and William Hosford were appointed a committee " to pi-epare for the ordina- 
tion." Owing to the loss of the early Church Records by fire, the exact date of 
the ordination cannot be known. Eut from a call for a Town Meeting dated De- 
cember 30, ITbo, to make arrangements to pay the expenses incurred by the Com- 
mittee in the oi'dination, there is no doubt that the ordination did take place on 
some day between the 2-2d of October aiid the 30th of December, and most probably 
in the month of Xovomber. 

The committee have therefore determined to celebrate the centennial in that 
month, and do hereby designate the liith of November, which is the third Sabbath 
of that month as the time for the celebration. As the period of an entire century 
is to be reviewed on this occasion it is understood that the Address will occupy 
the attention of the people at botli the morning and afternoon exercises of that 
day. 

The Facidly and students of the College, the 2d Congregational church, the 
Pastor and congregation of the Methodist Episcopal church, the members of the 
Baptist church and the former Pastors of this church who are still living will be 
invited to be present and participate in the celebration. The President of the 
college, assisted by onV last Pastor, Rev. Addison Ballai'd, will be requested to 
preside and conduct the devotional services in the morning, and the Pastor of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, assisted by other clergymen to do the same in the 
jifternoon.' 

In the evening at 7 o'clock there will be a " Conference Meeting" after the man- 
71CT of the " olden time." The Rev. Lucius E. Smith, of Groton, Mass., assisted 
by Prof. Albert Hopkins, will be requested to presiilc at this meeting, and the 
time will be spent in in-ayer and singing, and in volunteer addresses of not over 
ten minutes from citizens and strangers. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

IIEXRY L. SABTX, ) 

KEVES DAM'OltTII, ^Committee. 

JA."^1ES aMEDLEV, ) 

Williamsto-wn, October 22a, 18G5. 

* This report was read from the pulpit In the 1st Congregational church on 
Sabbath Day, Oct. 22, 1835. 



DISCOURSE. 



AND UK BARE TUE^l AKD CAKUIED THEM ALL THE DAVS Ol' OLD.— Isaiall G3 : 9. 

As I staml before you to-day I feel very clce[)ly that we are all 
one family, aiul that I may claim the privilege and the honor of a 
son and a brother. I was born in this household. I was baptized 
at this altar. I was trained in your district school, and educated, 
at the college. At seventeen years of age, in company with 
many others, and with some of you who are now present, I pub- 
licly confessed Christ in this house and sat down for the first time 
at the table of the Lord. Just aflcr I had passed my majority I 
was licensed to preach by the Berkshire Association, and tlie 
year following was ordained in this Pulpit and sent forth as an 
Evangelist to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Clnist. And 
now after thirty-four years of absence, nearly twenty of which I 
have been a Pastor in the city of Washington and in Xew York, 
and twelve a Chapbin in our Xavy — after having sailed more 
miles upon the seas than would encircle the earth, and touched 
with my feet the four quarters of the globe, and looked in upon 
the homes of most of the great races of the human family — I 
come back again with real pleasure to my own first and dearest 
home. These grand old mountains stand before me in the same 
sublime repose with Avhich they awed and yet attracted my 
childhood. The pleasant pastures on the hills, and the meadows 
down by the river, and the clear bright brooks that find their 
way along the vallies arc the same as I left them. And though 
when I look around for the comiianions of my youth I find that 
most of them have gone, and that the majority of them have in- 
deed joiiK'd our older fathers and mothers in 'the sleep of the 



grave; aud though the memories of the past become thus in 
some respects as sad as tlicy are sacred, yet I am glad to know 
that so many have, through the love and grace of God, passed 
away to a better home. They are not dead. They are living 
still. And here too instead of the fathers are the children and 
the children's children ; and in all these old homes are the same 
young joys and bright hopes that made life so pleasant in the 
past. Amid all the changes there is more that remains im- 
changed. God and truth and duty and social life and human na- 
ture and man's Great Saviour are the same. And though we 
come together to remember the past I cannot but remember that 
the past was so much like the present, while the present is like 
the past. 

A few days after receiving the invitation to address you on 
this occasion I was walking on the clifls at Newport, looking out 
npon the sea, and thinking of you and the past. It Avas a quiet 
summer day and the great waters lay before me in all their gloiy. 
They came rolling on in resistless poAver, now rising and swelling 
into majestic billows which sweeping over the distant rocks left 
them shining in their white spray, and then hurrying on toward 
the shore they lifted up their crests of foam in long lines of 
beauty and breaking into countless gems scattered all their treas- 
ures upon the sands. But though they reached the shore they 
did not find a resting place. They seemed tied by invisible 
bands to all that they had left behind them ; and yielding to 
their power they returned to the sea only to be swept back 
again with the rising tide. Though the depth and strength of 
the waters -svere ever changing with the hours, yet the great 
waves continued the same. And it was this idea of immutability 
in the midst of ceaseless change, of immortal youth and vigor 
enthroned upon the billows as they roll on through the ages, that 
chiefly occupied my thoughts. The waters were as clear and 
pure as when first ^^oured forth from the hands of their Creator. 
Their movements were as full of majesty and power. Their 
white foam flashed as brightly in the sun, and their voice was as 
solemn and sublime. Tlie v.hole scene before me did not dittcr 
from th.at on Avliich the Ked Naragansett looked as he stood 
there three centuries before leaning upon his strong bow and 
gazing upon the wonders of the deep. It was the same as that 
which led the author of the oldest Book more than four thousand 



years ago to exclaim, " Who shut up the sea ? and set har8 and 
doors, and said liithcrto shalt thou come, and no further, and 
lierc shall thy proud waves be stayed." 

I love to think of the stability of the universe, and of the un- 
changing youth and freshness of nature around us. And as wo 
come up to these heights to-day and look out upon th*-) great 
ocean of the past, I love to remember that our race has ever 
been substantially the same in all the changes through -which they 
have passed. 

I am aware that there are those who look upon the past of 
our race as full of darkness. To them the shadows are ever 
deepening as they go backward, till as they approach the origia 
of man they find him in the degradation of a savage and scarcely 
elevated above the beasts that perish. From this low point they 
tell us that man has been slowly working his way \ip to his pres- 
ent position, his powers having been gradually developed, while 
his progress in the future is secured only by the same stern laws 
that have controlled him in the ages that are gone. 

Now while there are some facts which may seem to counte- 
nance such a theory, there are many more which accord with the 
Bible in its declaration that man was made in the image of God, 
that his character at first was perfect, and that the race com- 
menced Iheir career on earth in the full development of all their 
powers. The golden age was not a pleasant fable. The fall of 
man from his original uprightness was not a sudden plunge into 
the depths of savage ignorance and ferocity. On the contrary, 
nothing is more certain than the revelation of a gracious Deliv- 
erer to man at the very commencement of his sins and sorrows ; 
and as soon as the race began to spread themselves over the earth, 
they are ever accompanied by the most signal manifestation of 
the loving kindness of their Creator. The nearer we come in 
our investigations to the primitive ages and the more exact our 
knowledge, the more evidence do we find that in Asia on the 
Tigris and the Euphrates, and In Afi-ica on the Nile, there were 
races of men equal and in some respects superior to ourselves. 
In the Palaces of Xinevah and Biibylon as revealed to our eyes 
by Layard and others, and in the Temples of Luxor and Carnac, 
and in the pyamids and tombs of Kgypt are specimens of art, of 
taste, of skill and power which proclaim that the races that con- 
structed them were as mighty as our slanders of their barbai-ism 
are baseless. 



8 

Barbarism has indeed swept over many ti-ibcs and nation^. 
But it ever came as a judgment of God. It was in accordance 
with both natural and moral law. Men gradually sank down into 
the debasements which have so long characterised some of the 
nations of the East ; while the tribes scattered in the more inac- 
cessible parts of the earth, and exposed to the powerful influ- 
ences of climate and of war, and of false government have 
reached at times a terrible depth of savage degradation. Still, 
barbarism has ever been exceptional and limited; not normal or 
universal. Man's higher nature has ever been asserting itself. 
The great waves as they have rolled on from age to age have 
been bound to all the past and to a redeeming God ; and though 
at times shrouded in thick darkness and lashed by the fury of the 
Btorm, have yet returned to their place, lifting themselves up to- 
•ward the sky and spreading out in solemn beauty under the 
light 

It is with such reverence for the past in general, and with an 
assured confidence in the comparative wisdom and goodness of 
our own immediate ancestors in particular, that I enter into the 
pleasant memories and unite in the congratulations of this day. 

A century has passed since our fathers first stood among these 
hills and began to build their homes in the forests that then 
thickly shaded these vallies. We gather here to-day to look back 
over these years, and to revive in some measure the scenes that 
have been witnessed. 

The principal subject which invites our attention is tlie liistory 
and character of the fathers of mir town. 

We are not afraid to ask the question n-ho and what rvcre they? 
For they were the children of the Pilgrim Fathers. In some of 
them was the blood of those who landed on the rock at Ply- 
mouth more than a century before ; and the rest were the de- 
scendants of those who followed the first Pilgrims in exile from 
the father land. 

During the century preceding the settlement of Berkshire the 
coast of New England had been studded with their towns and 
adorned with their school houses and churches. The forests had 
gradually fallen before them, and villages had sprung up in the 
interior as far as the valley of the Connecticut. But here the 
tide of emigration westward was arrested for many years. The 
tribes of Indians were too formidable and their union with the 



hostile Frcnc-li loo close to porinil our FfitliCr.s to ]»lacc tlioin- 
selves Leyond the rough hills that separated them from the IIoo- 
sic and the Ilousatonic. As late as 17o5 there was hut oncliouse 
between AVestfield in Hampden Co. and Sheffield in this county. 
In Slieffield was the first setlleniont in Berkshire, and it consisted 
chietly of emigrants from "West field. And it is an interesting 
fact to me personally that a Mr. Noble from Westfield, is record- 
ed in the history of Sheffield as '' the first white man who resided 
in the town. lie spent the first winter there with no other hu- 
man heing than the Indians. In the spring he Ave)it hack to 
AVestfield and in June returned with his daughter."' This we 
suppose was in 172;"). The settlements on the Ilousatonic ex- 
tended gradually northward, reaching Great Barrington which 
was then a part of Sheffield in IToO; Stockbridge between ITof) 
and 1710; Lenox in 17o0; Pittsfield hi 1752; and Williamstown 
in 17;");). 

The Legislative provision by which the first settlers of tlu.<? 
town became proi)rietors of the soil was enacted April 0, 1750. 
By this law a committee was appointed to lay out 03 house lot.s 
of ten or twelve acres each in the township of West Iloosic. 
They were then to admit sixty settlers, — each settler to be en- 
titled to one sixty-third part of the township on condition ot 
paying six pounds, thirteen siiillings and six pence within two 
years, building a house 18 feet long, by 15 wide and seven stud, 
fencing five acres and bringing it to grass or fit for ploughing, 
and actually by themselves or heirs residing five years in seven 
from the time of their being admitted. Each house lot was then 
])ennitted to draw one sixty-third jjart of the township. Three 
of the sixty-third parts of the township were by the law reserved 
— one for the first settled minister; one for the ministry, i. e., his 
salary; and one for the school '' as near the centre of the town 
as may be with convenience." And all this had another indispen- 
sable condition — ''that they do settle a learned orthodox minis- 
ter in said town Avithin the term of five years of their being ad- 
mitted.'' 

The fir.st meeting of the ''Proprietors' of Williamstown was 
held December 5, 1753, by virtue of a' Avarrant of Wni. Wil- 
liams, Esq., of Pittsfield, issued in pursuance of a vote of tho 
General Court of ^Massachusetts l^ny. September 7, 1753. 

Two years previous Nehemiah Smedley and William and 



10 

Josiah Hosforcl and some other young men had come here to 
prepare a settlemeut for themselves and their families. Being 
hoAvever interrupted in their plans hy tlie increasing hostility of 
the Indians, they returned to Connecticut, and then enlisting in 
a company raised to jDrotect the frontiers they came again with 
others to this place and garrisoned a fort which stood a few rods 
northwest of this house, and also a Llock house near the West 
College. The few inhabitants were exposed to frequent incur- 
sions from the Indians; and in July, 175G, Capt. Chapin and two 
jjersons by the name of Chidestree are said to have been killed, 
while several persons were carried off into captivity. 

Connected with these defences of the town at that time we 
cannot forget Fort Massachusetts, situated three miles and a half 
east of this church not far from the north bank of the Hoosic. 
This fort was built in 1741 or in 1742, and was the scene of many 
a bloody strife in those early days. Capt., afterwards Col. 
Ephraim Williams was stationed there as commander in 1748, 
and it was in such circumstances that he made the acquaintance 
of our struggling fathers and formed those attachments to the 
people and the town that in a few years through his noble legacy 
changed the name of West Iloosic into Williamstown, and 
Avreathed his own brow with the pure and ever increasing glories 
of WiUiams College. 

For a period of four years from 175G to 1700 I find no record 
of the fortunes of the small number who were here battling with 
the terrors of a Avilderness through which the savages roamed 
every year on their war path. Their niuuber however gradually 
increased, and though exposed to so many trials their chief anxie- 
ties seem to be connected Avith their spiritual interests. In this 
connection and as illustrating the real character of the men, I will 
read to you some extracts from the early records of the town. 

The second meeting of the Proprietors was called by the Pro- 
prietor's clerk, Isaac Wyman, and dated Fort Massachusetts, 
April 5th, 1754. The place of meeting was to be in West Iloosic 
at the dwelling house of Capt. Allen Curtis ; and among other 
items of business they were " to see if the Proprietors will have 
the gospel preached in this town this summer or some part of it; 
and if so to choose a committee to bring in some orthodox min- 
ister to preach the gospel." 

" Oct. 1, 17G0, Voted to hire preaching for six months begin- 



11 

nin;^ the 1st of May next, ami to raise twelve sliillnigs on each 
riglit to defray the expense." 

" Xov. 20, 17G0, A mcetmg Avas called to see if the town 
Avonhl choose a committee to hire a good orthodox Preaclier, 
and to sec if the Proprietors woukl raise more money to defray 
tlie charges which are likely to arise." 

"Dec. IC, ITGl), The town voted to choose Thomas Train and 
Gideon ^\';uren a committee tu liirc a good orthodox Preacher 
for the Proprietors, and to raise .t tax of eight shillings on each 
Proprietor's right, to defray the necessary charge." 

'' Sept. 21, 17G1, Voted that (lidgon Warren's account of two 
pounds and five sliillings, and Tliomas Train's account of twelve 
shillings be accepted for going after a minister." At the same 
meeting " Josiah Ilosford and Samuel Kellogg were appointed a 
committee to hire a good orthodox Preacher." 

The next year tlie town voted at a meeting held March 29, 
17G2, not to raise money to hire preaching. But 

"March 10, 17G.3, It was voted to have preaching for the fu- 
ture, and that Thomas Dunton, Asa Johnson and Samuel Kellogg 
he a committee to provide a minister. Also to raise twelve shil- 
lings on each Proprietor's right to defray the expense of preach- 
ing. They also chose a committee consisting of Jonathan ]Meach- 
am and Samuel Kellogg to reason Avith the Treasurer." There 
seems to have been some conflict in authority between the set- 
tlers and the original Proprietors, and this probably explains the 
vote of the previous year refusing to raise money for preaching. 

" Nov. IG, 17G3, Voted to give Mr. "Warner a call to preach on 
probation, and chose Nehemiah Smedley, Benjamin Simonds and 
Derrick Webb a committee to treat Avith Mr. Warren or provide 
another minister if need be." 

" March 28, 17G4, Voted to raise nine shillings on each Propri- 
etor's right for preaching." 

"Sept. 7, 17G4, Voted to choose Jonathan Meacham and 
Samuel Kellogg a committee to jn-ovide a minister for the I*ro- 
])rietors." 

" Dec. o, 17G4, A'oted not to hire Mr. Strickland on probation." 

" March 2G, 17Go, Voted to raise nine shillings of money on 
each Proprietor's right to support the gospel." 

These votes so often repeated do in fact constitute one great 



12 

item of busTness till in July, 17G'>, '• 3-Ir. "Whitman AVelcli was 
calleil to the work of the ministry in this town." 

While the call to Mr. AVelch was thus given in July, his ordi- 
nation did not take place till late in the following autumn. The 
exact date is unknown owing to the loss hy fire of the early re- 
cords of the church. But in the records of the town Ave find 
that on October 22d, " Richard Stratton and Josiah and William 
Hosford Avere appointed a committee to prepare for the ordina- 
tion." In the montli of December a town meeting Avas called to 
defray the expenses incurred at the ordination. So that the or- 
dination itself must have taken place between these two dates 
and probably in the month of Xovember. On this account it 
Avas thought best to appoint this lime for the celebration of the 
centennial. 

It A^'ou]d be A'cry pleasant if Ave could lift the A'cil from the 
scenes of this eventful day in the history of our town. There 
are some fiiets Avhich may aid us a little in this respect. The 
Congregational Chiu'ch in Lanesborough AA'as formed in March 
the preceding year by Rev. Samuel Hopkins of Great Barrington, 
and the Rev. Stephen West of Stockbridge. The Rev. Daniel 
Collins Avas ordained in Lanesborough three weeks later, the 17th 
of April, 17G4, and the Rev. Thomas Allen was ordained in Pontoo- 
suc (noAV Pitttsfield,) the day folloAving. These four men, so closely 
and sacredly united, and constituting a majority of the Pastors in 
this region were doubtless the principal actors in this scene. There 
Avere here at the time only the primitive log houses. There Avas 
no church edifice, and the school house where the infant chui'ch 
had been in the habit of meeting for public worship stood where 
the Mansion Ilouse now stands. There doubtless tliese minis- 
ters of God, Avent in their large three cornered hatSj'and their 
small clothes and silver shoe buckles and bands and gown, and 
laid their hands so reverently upon the head of the young Pas- 
tor, and invoked that presence and blessing of the Lord Avhich 
liave continued here for the century that is gone. 

We learn from the town records that the " settlement" of the 
Pastor Avas " eighty pounds, to be paid one half the first year, 
and the other half the year following." Ilis " salary" Avas to be 
forty pounds, and to be " increased tliree pounds annually till it 
should amount to seventy pounds. He was also to " have the use 
of the ministry liouse lot." The liouse in Avhich he did in fact 



13 

live, w.ns the one after wards occni)ie(l for so many years l>y the 
Harrison family, and is now owned and occupied by ^Ir. Daniel 
Stevens. The old pine tree wliieli was then j)lanted still stands 
in the front door-yard, — tliough it is no longer a symbol as iu tliosc 
times of the minister's home. 

^Ir. Welch was a <;radna(e of Y'ale College in ITH-J. lie is 
said to have been a man of intelligence, and very social in his 
habits. He was an animated I'reachor and attentive to tlie du- 
ties of his ofllce. In the first year of the .Vmerican KevolutiDU, 
ami after a I'astorate of nearly I "J yeai's, he became a cliaplain in 
a regiment to which a coinpany belonged commanded by Lieut. 
Zebediah Sabin of this town. That winter he mai'clied with the 
American Ai-jny to Can.ada, where both he and Jjieut., then C'a))- 
tain Sabin, and many others of our townsmen, laid down their 
lives in the service of their country. 

Baptised as we all have been in the blood of this second, and 
still more glorious war of independence, -which has ju.st closed so 
triumphantly, it is not unpleasant to remember to-day that the 
first Pastor of the beloved church of our fathers and the grand- 
father of Dr. Henry L. Sabin, now the oldest living Deacon, po 
perfectly identified themselves Avilh that heroic struggle, — the 
Pastor going forth by the side of his Lieutenant and other mem- 
bers cf his own fiock, to defend the liberties of the land. A few- 
years later, at the time of tlie Battle of Bennington, it is said that 
every man in this town, e\-ce])t a cripple on crutches, shouldered 
his gun and rn.>-hed to the field of conflict, — while the crijiple 
went from house to house in the settlement encouraging tho 
Avomcn who could hear dis'-inctly the booming of the guns during 
the anxious hours. 

Iu the year of Mr. Welch's ordination, and of the incorporation 
of the town, there Mere some sixty or more settlers here. In 
1770, there were about seventy families or parts of families. I will 
give you their names as I find them recorded: — 

C.vi'T. Ni-in Mi.vii SMr.Di.icv, Sf.th Lr.Avis, 

Wii.i.iAM Hi)sioi!i>, _ David Nichols, 

JosiAii IIosiDUD, Srr.i'iir.N 1)avi.-<, 

Col. 15. Simonu.^, This Haiuusox, 

Si. Til lIlDSON, IsAAr OviTT, 

Hli IlAItl) SthaTTON, JuSlAU WlUClIT, 

JOXATHAN MlAdlAM, JlJSSE RVAX, 

.Tami-s Mi:a( ham, Samvi-.i, JJircicakr, 

Thomas liiAix, Joski-h Wiir.r.LKu, 

Thomas Dintox, Atia Johx>o\, 

TS'ii.soN Wi:iin, llor.r.iiT Iiawkins, 

])AV1I) WuilU, J)i:itKKK fSMITII, 



14 

Elkaxah Fahis, Joseph Talmadge, 

CaI'T. 18A.VC Sl.ARLE, ElISHA lIlGGIXS, 

JoKx NioAvniRY, Stephen Olmstead, 

Kl.ISHA lIlGGIN.S, KatHAN SmITII, 

Dea. Nathan Wheei.er, Isaac Stuatton, 

Mr. Seeeey, Daniel Burhank, 

Elisha Baker & Sox, Hobert McMaster, 

AViLi.iAM HiNE, John McMaster, 

Mo.SES Rich, William Young, 

liVKTIIOLOMEAV WoODfOCK, jEnEDIATI SaRIN, 

Nehemiah WooncocK, David Johnson, 2d, 

David Johnson, Asa Coiiben, 

Samvel Sloank, Amasa Corrrx, 

Alexander Si.oane, Joseph Corben, 

Thomas Koe, Samuel Mills, 

ICHAROD SOUTHWICK, JONATHAN ShERAVOOD, 

John Toiihey, Samuel Sheravood, 

William Torrey, • Isaac Sheravood, 

Capt. Samuel Clark, Deming, 

!Moses Young, Lieut. Sampson Hoave. 

Andreav Young, 

I have said that these men were the descendants of the Pilgrim 
Fathers. It is not liowevcr a fact that they all came from either 
Central or Eastern Massachusetts, — many of them were from that 
portion of Connecticut Avhich lies immediately south of Berk- 
shire county. They were all, however, of the same original Puri- 
tan stock ; entertaining the same strong views of religious truth 
and of civil liberty ; uniting habits of industry, frugality and a 
3tern morality with a true appreciation of solid learning in their 
teachers and of general intelligence among the people. As they 
set up their church and their school-house in the very centre of 
their settlement, and lp*id out their farms on every side of this 
centre, so it is no exaggeration to say that their remarkable wis- 
dom and energy in laying foundations of temporal prosperity 
were inspired by and rendered subservient to the great central 
idea of establishing the kingdom of God among men, and secur- 
ing for themselves the blessings of that " eternity," which was a 
great word, and a most vivid reality to their minds. And it is in 
this connection that I wish to consider a little more particularly 

ulint our Fathers were. 

I confess that I feel a much deeper interest in this subject than 
in their original and general history. As I see them leaving 
their former homes, and arriving here among these Avild hills ; as 
the dense woods arc gradually opened to the sunlight, and the 
virgin soil rewards with its treasures their first years of labor, I 
love to remember that they Avere not mere laborers, and that ma- 
terial interests and physical comfort were not their first object. 
They were, some of them, eminently spiritual men, and all be- 
longed to the most remarkable race that had been found on the 



15 

earth for many ages, ami tlioy livt'i] in llic midst of those [loculiar 
inrtueneos whicli creatLMl the Ameiiinii nation. 

It lias been said that '' God sifted tliree nations " to secure the 
seed which He phmted in our Aniciiean soil. The Huguenots of 
France, tlie Dutch Colonists of Holland, and the Puritans of Kng- 
huul were certainly, in their day, '" the salt of the earth, and the 
light of the world.'' Though the great majority of tluin w eri' of 
the common people, yet it should never be forgotten that they 
were not the " Peasants" of Europe, but in their intelligence and 
character, far above the masses. 

A modern writer, Thackeray, in his lectures on the CJeorges, 
says, "As one views P^urope in the early part of the last century, 
the landscape is awful, — wretched cities beggarly and plundered ; 
half burned cottages, and trembling peasants gathering piteous 
harvests ; gangs of such tramping along with bayonets be- 
hind them." " Near the city, shut out by woods from the beg- 
gared country, the enormous, hideous, gilded, monstrous Palace 
Avhere the Prince is, and the Court, and the trim gardens, and huge 
fmmtains. If you can sec out of the Palace windows beyond 
the trim-cut forest vistas, misery is lying outside, hunger is stalk- 
ing about, the bare villagers listlessly following precarious luis- 
bandry; ploughing stony fields with starved cattle, or fearfully 
taking in scanty harvests. Hound all the royal splendor lies a 
nation enslaved and ruined; there are people robbed of tlieir 
rights ; communities laid waste ; faith, justice, commerce trampled 
upon and well nigh destroyed." "In the first half of the last cen- 
tury this is going on all Europe over." 

Now, while such was the condition of the peoi)le "all Europe 
over," a kind Providence had rescued our Fathers from the terrible 
degradation. From 1G20, when the Mayflower landed its precious 
freight of freemen at Plymouth, till the latter jiart of the century, 
the Puritans were ([uietly leaving England and finding a refuge 
in this western world. As they were at home the very choicest 
of the peo])le in intelligence, in morals, and in enterprise, so here 
they were placed in the midst of the most propitious influences 
for the formation of the highest |)OSsible character. Before the 
law they were all equal. They in fact chose their own IJulcrs 
and made their own laws. In IJeligion they had a Church with- 
out a Bishop, as they had a State without a King. In learning 
there were no exclusive privileges, and no degraded castes or 



in 

classes. The comriion scliool anvl tlio common clmrcli stood siJc 
by side, and it was coriSidercd not simi)ly tlic privilege but tlio 
duty of all to sliare equally in their henetits. Tiic- climate was 
rio'orous, and the soil vras stuhborn, and the Indians were treach- 
erous, and their life was full of care and toil. But they shrunk 
not from their responsibilities in etfeminancy or in fear. They 
were diligent and frugal and thrifty and heroic. The old forests 
rang with the blows of their sh.arp axes, and fruitful fields soon 
surrounded their simple homes. They increased in numbers 
gradually, and all their institutions of learning and liberty as well 
as of religion were strengthened and pei'fected. 

Near the close of their first century, according to the London 
Magazine of May, 1755, and when our Fathers were beginning 
to emigrate to this county, there were a little over 200, OUO peo- 
ple in Massachusetts, 100,000 in Connecticut, and 30,000 in Xew 
Hampshire and Rhode Island respectively. There v.xre also 
100,000 in New York, 00,000 in New Jersey, and 250,000 in Penn- 
sylvania. In all the Southern Colonies there were also 250,000 — 
making a little over a million in all. 

At the opening of their second centuiy in this land — that is 
from 1730 to 17G0 — there were wew and mightier influences work- 
ing all around oiir Fathers ; and we shall fail to apjireciate the 
character of those Avho founded our town, if we forget the 
times in which they lived. 

There Avere the two French wars — the first continuing from 
1744 to 1748, and the second from 1754 to 17G0. In both of 
these fearfiil struggles with the French and Indians our Fathers 
were personally engaged; and in the second. Col. Ephraim Wil- 
liams lost his life. There was not a home in all this valley which 
the tidings of French cruelties and horrible Indian massacres did 
not darken, while there was not an individual Avho was not 
thrilled by the capture of Louisburg, and the final victory of the 
young Washington at fort UuQuesne (now l^ttsburgh,) and the 
consequent possession of the Ohio Valley and the entire line ot 
forts from the jNiississippi to Detroit and the lakes, and at last, a 
short time before the ordination of our first Pastor, the victory 
of Wolfe on the plains of Abraham and the subjection of all the 
French possessions in the North to the British crown. 

During all tlicse years the cloud of war hung so portentously 
over all this region and burst sometimes with such fury ujion our 



17 

FiiilnMf-. tli;\t every thhifj sficincil rca<ly to ]>erish. From 17r)4 to 
1700 there is .111 entire blank in tlie Kccords of the town and mc 
are left to fill it np Avitli deserted homes and burning houses, — 
those who had come I'or peaceful toil being turned into soldiers 
struggling for their personal existence and the life of the colonies 
as dc[)endcncies of a I'rotestant I'ower. 

But while as subjects of Great Britain and unyielding Protes- 
tants tlicy it'll identified with all th.esc struggles, and rejoiced in 
these m xgniticent triumphs over IJoman Catholic France, they 
Averc not prepared to surrender their own rights which they had 
enjoyed in this land as a most sacred inheritance derived fi-om 
their Fathers. Hence after tliey came forth from this protracted 
contest, they were ])repared to enter into that new and strange 
conflict which the British Government so unexpectedly forced 
upon them. 

If then the first settlers of this town lived and labored in tho 
midst of the perils of French and Indian wars, they also, as ttcH 
as their immediate successors, must liave felt all the excitcmonts 
■which preceded and created the Revolutionary War. 

In 1700, a Koyalist wrote from Connecticut to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, ''Connecticut is little more than a mere Democ- 
racy ; most of them upon a level, and each man thinking himself 
an able divine and politician. The people arc rampant in their 
high notions of liberty." This "svas a true witness ; and he de- 
scribes very exactly those men who came to this valley. The 
spirit which animated them had many representative men whose 
names have since become immortal. There was, for instance, the 
young and bold John Adams. At that time he was " blaster of 
the town school at Worcester, and meditating to become a 
Preacher." He is described as one who " loved the shady thickets 
and gloomy groves," and as saying, '' a few people came over into 
this new world for conscience sake, and in another century wiU 
l)ecome more numerous than England itself All Europe will not 
be able to subdue us." There was also James Otis of ^^'est Barn- 
stable, and afterwards of ]3oston, avIio said, " I am determined to 
sacrifice estate, health, applause, and even life itself; to the sacred 
calls of my country." 

These young men spoke out the secret and strong sentiments 
of the universal heart; and il was such patriotic fervour th.it 
burned in the bosoms of our own Fathers as thev tailed here in 



18 

the constnietion of their new homes. And vrc may imngine, 
though we cannot describe the intense indignation at the Stamp 
Act which Avas passed in this memorable year 17G5, and the ex- 
citement on this topic Avhich must have minglfed with the cere- 
monies of the ordination of our first Pastor. 

But there were representative men in religion as well as in pat- 
riotism in those days. The land was indeed full of learned and 
sound religious teachers — of m.en who, while they we^-e them- 
selves the product of the open Bible and of unrestricted religious 
freedom everywhere enjoyed, stood up in the presence of congre- 
gations eager for the truth, and cap.able of appreciating the most 
vigorous reasoning on the most sublime doctrines of revelation. 
Can we forget to-day, that when the first settlers of this town 
came over the hills that separate us from the Connecticut river, 
or wound their way up along the valley of the llousatonic, the 
great Jonathan Edwards had just left the scene of his most won- 
derful ministry in Northampton, and was already seated in his 
little study with its bare floor, in this county, thinking his wise 
and holy thoughts, and preparing, among other immortal works, 
his treatise on the freedom of the will ? Can we fail to remem- 
ber, also, that Dr. Samuel Hopkins began his ministry in this 
county in 1743, and continued here 26 years, several years after 
the organization of this church by himself and others ; and that 
his system of theology was for some years a text book in this 
College, and has in fact given tone and strength to the best re- 
ligious thinking of New England for the last century ? If there 
Were time I might mention other great and memorable names as 
illustrations of the religious sentiments and character of our 
fathers. Suffice it to say that the whole Bible as the rule of faith, 
and. christian doctrine scientifically stated by teachers of the 
clearest minds and the warmest and most devout hearts, Avas the 
spiritual food in Avhich the people most delighted. 

But it is our purpose not only to consider, this day, the charac- 
ter of those who first settled the town, but also to pass in brief 
review the history of tlie succeeding generations, and look at 
some of the results which have been here accomplished. 

I have not been able to discover from any Avritteu records the 
exact date in Avhich the different families arrived here after the 
ordination of Mr. Welch. Among the earliest of them was, how. 
ovjr, niy grandfather, David Noble, Avho planted himself immc- 



10 

(Vialcly on llio banks of tlio Iloosie, in a house Avliicli stood on 
the spot ■where tlic new factory company arc now erecting their 
principal dweHing liouse. lie was a graduate of Yale College, 
and a lawyer by profession. He soon removed to the main street, 
where he lived for many yours, and finally died in 1808, in the 
old brick mansion now owned and occupied by Mr. John Cole. 
lie was one of the original Trustees of Williams College, and a 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. His name and that of 
his wife are found in the list of the 03 members of the church 
who united in the call to Rev. Seih Swift to become their Pastor 
in 1770, three years after the death of ^Ir. Welch ; and he was 
one of a committee of three to present the call to the Pastor-elect. 
Another of those early settlers was the son-in-law of my grand- 
father, Daniel Dewey, also a lawyer, and who subsequently 
became a Judge of the Supreme Court of ^Massachusetts, and 
was very eminent for his legal knowledge and intellectual powei*. 
Another man of distinction at that time was Thompson I. Skin- 
ner, the Treasurer of the Commouwcalth. 

Another man who should not be forgotten, was Capt. Jonathan 
Danforth, the honored grandfather of our fellow-citizen, Keyes 
Dantbrth, Kscj. He was actively engaged in the battle of Bunker 
Hill, with his eldest son, Joshua, who soon afterwards became 
Aid to Cieneral Washington, and fought through the Revolution, 
leaving the army at the close of the war Mith tlie rank of Colonel. 
Not long after the battle of Bunker Hill, the father emigrated 
with the other members of his family to this town, and it was 
he who headed the company of our townsmen who rushed to 
the Bennington battle. In that battle he is said to have " acted 
a conspicuous part as commander of a battalion," 

In the medicixl profession also, there was one man, Dr. William 
Towner, whose fame as a physician extended to the Capitol of 
our State, and whose early death excited the profoundest regret 
among all classes. 

In Barber's Historical Collection of Massachusetts, there is an 
imperfect list of those mIio arrived here between 1770 and 1800. 
The names arc the Bulkleys, Bridges, Chamberlain, Day, Judd, 
Xortham, Skinner, Tyler, Judah and Elisha Williams, and the 
Wolcotts. They came most of them from Colchester, Conn. 

These were all old men when I was a boy; but their features, 
tlicir form.;, and their manners arc indelibly impressed on my 



20 

memory. I thonglit little ilion of wliat Ihcy r.iul tlieir predeces- 
sors had done to create their pleasant homes ; but to-day, 'vvith 
ray own experience of life, I turn and look back with the deepest 
interest to their early strno;gles after they had selected their 
liomes on the high hills and in the deep and narrow vallies of the 
town. Beginning with my grandfather, Charles Bnlkley, on the 
higli bleak ridge just this side of South Williamstown village, 
Avherc afterwards Gershom Bnlkley lived so many years, Ave may 
follow thcni down the old road to the banks of Gree3"i river by 
the Judds and the Kriggcrs and the Williams and the Blairs and 
the Days and the Harrisons, Avhile the Bridges and the Nortliama 
pass over the Iloosic, the Chanibcrlains and the Tylers going up 
to tlic very summit of Northwest Hill, the Fords cultivating the 
l)ase of that hill, and the Wolcotts planting themseh-cs nearer the 
fort and the growing village. The Wolcotts passed aAvay, and 
Col. Tyler came dov/n from Xorthwest Ilill and spent his last 
ye.ars in their old red mansion. But nov/ the hot/se itself is 
gone, the old road leading by it is turned into tlie valley, and as 
I tried to discover the site of the home of these tvro generations, 
every vestige of the past was gone, and I found only a ploughed 
field. 

This last emigration we may suppose fouyd the better portions 
of the land already taken up by the first settlers. The Smedleys 
and Meachanis and Kelloggs and Simonds and Sloanes and No- 
bles in the north, and the Burbanks and W^oodoocks, and Torreys 
and Youngs and Sabins and Sherwoods and Domings and John- 
sons in the south, were already reaping rich liarvests on every 
side. 

I am aware that the younger portion of my audience may not 
feel any special interest in some of these names. But to those ot 
my own age and older, there are a thousand thrilling association!"! 
connected with them, and the dead past is thus filled to us with 
life and beauty. We see also the hills and the pleasant farms as 
they Avere once occupied on the east by the Kelloggs and the 
Footes and Pauls and Blackintons and Wells, and on the west 
and southwest by the Danforths and Talmadges and Iloxies and 
llickoxes and I'rindlcs. And the interest does not diminish as avo 
come into this village and pass up and doAvn the principal street, 
and mingle once more in imagination with those Avho Avcre onco 
seen here in their various occupations. Here v>-ere the I'litnams, 



21 

ihe son ami gr:in.ls.'):r^. of iho oM rcvol.ilion.iry ]\crr>. nu'l tlio 
StarkwcntlicrsniKl tlic Whitmans ongngcil in puccossfvil trailc, :inil 
Dr. SatiHU'l Porter, wliosc knowldlije of incdiciTio and ski)} in 
surgery placed liim at the head of his iinportaiit profession ; and 
Eli Porter, ^vllo mended our watches ami reg'ilatcd cv.r tinic; and 
Koyal L. Portei-, who cstahlisheil the " .Vnicriean Traveler," 
a newspaper that still survives in Boston, and tlunigh he 
died so young, hml made himself one of the leading editors in onr 
State Capitol. And here in the most heautiful houpe in ttnvn, 
was General Sloane; and after him his son, Douglass W. Sloane^ 
Ks()., surrounded by liis fiiinily of accom'plislied daugliters. As 
we pass doAvn the hill Ave come to the Vesiden.ce of Judge 
]^aniel Dewey, which allcr his death in ISlo, was occupied for 
many years by his son, Charles A. Dewey, E^^q., Avho has ^inec 
been invested with the same ju'lir/ial robes v.'hieh sat so gracefully 
on Ills father before him. and wiiich the son continues to wear in 
the full strength of his powers. When he left us for his new 
home in Northampton, his younger brother, Daniel X. Dewey, 
Esq., succeeded him here in the profession of lav,-; and after iill- 
ing the important of}iees of Trustee and Treasurer of the College, 
and Jmlge of the Probate Cor.rt of Derkshire County, and for 
many years prc^viiig his excellence as a elni.-tian by the jmrity of 
his liie an<l the generous spirit with which he sustained the insti- 
tutions of religion, died at the early age of 54 — greatly re- 
grettetl — his loss to the church and the town being still deeply 
fell among us. His son, Daniel Dewey, Esq., also a lawyer, now 
occupies the old home and is rapidly assuming the responsibili- 
ties of the father and grandfather. I\ear him was Gershom T. 
J^iilkley, E.sq., the merchant, tlie Postmaster, and the Town 
Clerk, who i)roelaimed with a trembling and yet distinct voice to 
the breathless congregation Just assembled for worship on Sal)- 
hf*th morning, that '"Marriage was intended between Jtlr. A. 1>. of 
C.,and Miss K. F. of Williamstown." And on the opposite i^ide 
of the street was Solomon Bulkley, E::q., the Sheriff, whose quiet 
and silence of epecch were proverbial and from whose ceaseless 
and stealthy activity no victim of tlie law could ever escape. 

There was also the Hon. Daniel Xoble, in the full tide of suc- 
cess in his ]>rofession of the law. .'.o devoted to the interests of 
Williams College, defending it before the Legislature -and origi- 
jiatlng and rendering successful those important mcasiu'cs which 



00 



pvcvcnte<l tlio ro:r.oval of the Col'cgo to ar.otlicv locarity. no*,v 
elegant his home, and how full of dignity his hearing, and how 
sudden and ovcrwhchuing his early deatii, blighting some of the 
fairest pros2-)ects for himself and his children not yet arrived at 
maturity. lie had been for many years a member of this church, 
and in the winter preceding his death, by his exhortations and 
prayers in the conference room, left a very deep impression upon 
many that the Great Head of the church was preparing him in 
Ilis own loving way for tlie solemn change. His three surviving 
sons are llev. Edward W. Xoble, for many years past a faithful 
and successful Pastor of a Congregational Church in Truro, 
Mass. ; Soloman B. Noble, Esq., a lawyer of fine abilities in the 
city of Xew York, and William II. Xoble, a civil engineer in 
Wisconsin. 

Adjoining his homo was that of Dr. Samuel Smith, who went 
day and night singing over these hills, and carrying light and joy 
into so many darkened liouseholds. He has left two sons. Dr. 
Albert W. Smith, of Castleton, Vt., and Dr. A. Murray Smith, 
"who occupies the old homestead, and has the honor of practicing 
liis profession among the children of his father's patients. 

And Amasa Shattuck with his seven son.s — all still living, 
and the oldest yet toiling in the same shop where the peoi)le 
"\\ent in the olden time for tlieir nicest cabinet furniture and 
at long intervals for the coffin wliich shoukl inclose their dead. 

And Deacon Xoble Avith his seven sons also, two of Avliom 
found early graves, while the remaining five yet survive — one the 
Hon. Charles Xoble, a lawyer, and once holding the position of a 
State Judge; ar.othcr, the Hon. David A. Xoble, also a lawyer 
and a member of the U. S. Congress; and two otlicrs, D;iniel 
and William A. Xoble, successful merchants and useful christian 
men — nil in ^Michigan, the State of their adoption. 

And Christo])her Penniman, with his intelligent and >;ealous 
wife ever labeling for the kingdom of God. 

And Bissell Sherman, who was thought by us boys to haA'C 
gone to the end of tlie rainbow and seized there the bag of gold 
M hich was liidden so closely in the chest at home. 

And Samuel Duncan, whose diligence in his Avork was equalled 
only by his wonderful mechanical skill, and whose only surviving 
son, Dr. Sariiucl Duncan, is now an honored pliysician among us. 

At a somewhat later dale there li\ed in tlie same street John 



Wriglit the inercliaut,:ui«l Sainr.L'I CJ. Xoycs the hatter, :in<l Ho- 
mer Biirtlett the lawyer, and Kbenezer Kiimions the i)hysi- 
(•i;iii and Professor of natural history, and Kidley Bannister the 
riillisher and Editor of the "Anieriean Advocate," the weekly 
newspaper which was the joy and ])nde of our town for several 
years. And later still catne ]MaJor Lyman Ilubbell, who had 
fjpcnt a long life in the incessant toils of his larojc and successful 
business as a merchant in " Soutlipart," and (lurdon ]hilkley of 
" iStonehill,'' who retired from the labors of his farm and sjient his 
last years in such zealous endeavors to lead sinful men to the 
Saviour. And can we close this list of well-remembered men 
better than Avith the honored name of Stephen Ilosford, the mer- 
chant, who was also for so many years our Town Clerk and Justieo 
of the Peace ? 

Kow while the character and iVirtuncs of llicc men may h.-.re 
been quite different, wc cannot forget that they were all engaged, 
in their various spheres of life, in the great work of turning this 
wilderness into a fruitful field. AVhilo some were busy in cutting 
doM'n the forests, in subduing the .'?oil, in constructing roatls, in 
building bridges, in ei'ccting houses for their families, and st-hools 
and church, they all found themselves in " a good land, a land of 
brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of val- 
leys and hills; and they built goodly houses and dwelt therein ; 
and when their Hocks and their herds mullii>lied their hearts were 
not lifted up, neither did they forget the Lord their God. They 
)-emen\l>ered that it was He that gave them power to get wealth 
that He might establish his covenant which he swore uuto their 
fathers.'' 

And it was under the inllucncc of such principles that schools 
were so soon establishetl and cherished in each of the districts of 
the tOMMiship; that with the aid of the noble legacy of Col. "Wil- 
liams the Grammar school began its vigorous life, and afterwards, 
nnder President Fitch, grew into the College. There -were 
doubtless narrow minded men and croakers among them as there 
always have been in every generation. But their selfi.shness was 
swept away by the high and generous spirit of the majority. 
And it should never be forgotten that if there had been a diilbr. 
out class of men controlling our affairs at that early period — if 
our fathers had been men without large intelligence and christian 
sympathy, and self-denying dcvotenient of their comparatively 



24 

linrilcd property to t'r.o liuli'lc good, llio very superior prnilcges 
in education and in religion which this town so long enjoyed 
Avuiihl nut have e.vlsted. 

Tlic increase of po]->idation and of all kinds of business which 
fullowed the successful American devolution Avas accompanied 
l>y a large addition to the wealth and comfort, and I may add, the 
luxuries of the people. They began to build comparatively ele- 
gant houses. During th.c revolution tlie log houses had begun to 
give Avay to substantial frame dwellings. The first two frame 
liouscs erected are still standing — tlie one now occupied on Main 
ISt., by Mr. Waterman, and the other the Smedley house. It is 
said that so many men vrere absent on the battle field that tlie 
■\Aoineii of the settlements v.'cre obliged to assist in raising the 
frame of the first, Avhile in the following year Mr. Smedley was 
assisted in the same work by his neighbors of Bennington. The 
roof of the latter was no sooner in place than the house was 
crov.'ded in every part by families flying from the terrors which 
darkened the whole region north and west of us, as the cloud of 
war rolled on frcrn Canada to Lake George and Saratoga. 

Among the eleg.tnt private rosideuees which arose here not 
long after the revolution, were those now occupied by President 
Hopkins, by Daniel Dewey. Esq., and by Mr. John Cole. The 
])rincipal public buildings Avere the vrest college, tlie Mansion 
House and this church. The first meeting house Avas built by the 
l*roprietors in 17G8, and was occupied as a house of worship un- 
til 1798. The old churcli Avas removed farther back and stood 
for many years almost immediately opposite the present residence 
of Dr. Sabin, and Avas used as a ToAvn Hall. The list of sub- 
scribers to the new house has been preserved and shoAvs the spirit 
of our public men — the highest siibscriiitions being 100 pounds 
and the average 50 dollars. The building itself Avas in a very high 
style of church architecture and Avas built in the most substantial 
manner — according in fact Avith tiie best residences of the most 
l)rosperous men connected with the congregation. 

I am inclined to think too that the beautiful church edifice was 
not an unfair representation of the improved religious spirit of 
the people. Three years after our first Pastor's death in the 
cause of American Independence, tlie Pev. Seth Swift Avas in- 
stalled as liis successor. He Avas a man of C4od, eminent for his 
love of the triilh and his devotion to the duties of his liigh oifice. 



lie is (k'Sfiil)L'(l :is ''\v:i:"in and op^-ii in his tcniin-r, cvmigi'lit-al in 
liis ri'lii^ioiis views, serious in the c^eneral tone of his inlercourso 
^vith liis ])e<)i»Ie. deciiled in liis o))inions, and jn'udent and ener- 
getic in his measures." Durinj^ his j)ast()rate hirge aecc.;sion.H 
were made to tlie number of communicants, and the people of 
the town were brotight under tlio power of a mucli higlier chris- 
tian Hfe. I have heard my own lUlht'r and mother, -wlio made a 
profession of religion under his ministry, descril)e some of tlio 
scenes of that great i-evival of religion which lit\edthe church uj> 
into the very atmospliere of Heaven and gathered so many scorcH 
of all classes and ages into the fold of (iod ; taking religion itself 
out from those dead forms into which it is ever sinking through 
the unbelief and worldliness of fallen men, and making it a living 
power and a constant joy in the heart. It can never be forgotten 
that while such men :is James IMi-hards and Samuel I. ]\Iill% and 
Gordon Hall and others were here praying into existence the 
American Hoard of ^Missions, they themselves were receiving some 
of their holiest im])ulses from this church while imparting to it 
through their most intimate and constant fellowship with its mem- 
bers their own enlarged views and sublime purposes. Gordon 
Hall was indeed converted here, having united with this church 
on confession of his faith in LS06, and it was in such circumstan- 
ces that he joined that holy band who gathered under the haystack 
for prayer. The next year, i. c., in L^UT, and afler a ministry of 
nearly liS years, the following sad and yet triumphant entry 
was made in the Kecords of the church respecting its Pastor. 

',' February 15, 1807, at about 9 o'clock, A. M., Kev. Seth Swift , 
our much esteemed, dearly beloved and very faithful and labori- 
ous I'astor, died in the miilst of great usefulness, while God was 
pouring out His spirit here and giving him many seals of his 
ministry."' 

The revival was not checked by tlie death of tlie l*astor, but 
continued to move on with solemn and majestic ])ower under the 
ministrations of President l-'itch, who supplied the I'ulpit over 
six years, the church seeming truly to comprehend its great mis- 
sion on earth and especially to manifest its deej) and cordial sym- 
]tathy with those early and sublime movements which under the 
guidance of the "missionary band" in the college contempl.-Ued 
the subjection of the whole worjd to Christ. This church became 
from that time a missionary church. 

-i 



26 

In the summer of 1813, tlie Kev. Walter King, a graduate of 
Yale College, and who had already been a Pastor in Norwich, 
Conn., for twenty-four years, was installed over this church. In 
an obituary notice of him published in the " Pano]>list," he is de- 
scribed as a " sound divine, a solemn and searching preacher, and 
eminently a man of prayer." His ministry here was very briet 
but characterized by a tone of humble piety and of gentle purity 
of life, which render his memory very fragrant and pleasant to 
those who knew him. He was suddenly attacked with apoplexy 
while conducting the ministrations of the pulpit, and survived but 
a few hours after being carried to his home. His widow long 
remained among us, and if her cotemporaries could testify to-day 
of her character, there would be but one voice in relation to the 
aweetaess of her christian spirit, and the meekness and fortitude 
with Which she bore the trials of her protracted widowhood. 

In this connection I cannot refrain from mentioning the names 
of some of those remarkable christian women who for so many 
years gave tone to the social life of this town, and who by the 
labors of their fingers and the hospitality of their tables, and their 
large gifts in money, were ever helping on some candidate for 
the sacred office, and sending their well-stocked boxes to the mis- 
sionaries in distant lands. There were many such. The church 
will never cease to praise God for them, while our constant pray- 
er should be that their daughters may walk in their steps so far 
as they followed Christ. Among them we remember particular- 
ly Mrs. Mehitabel S. Bardwell, to whose house the missionary 
prayer meeting was transferred from the haystack, and wherein 
Saturday evenings so many candidates for the missionary field 
gathered for prayer ; — and Mrs. Iluth Benjamin, to whose house 
the same meeting was transferred when the infirmities of age no 
longer permitted Mrs. Bardwell to receive them, and who before 
she herself departed to glory had the honor and happiness of see- 
ing her son and her granddaughter going forth as active laborers 
in the foreign missionary cause; and the two Mrs. Whitmans, 
whose n.ames are associated Avith every good enterprise in the 
town and church and college — every Tuesday evening, for a 
score of years, witnessing their rooms crowded with those Avho 
loved to pray, and every year testifying to their clicerful gifts of 
hundreds and sometimes of thousands of dollars to the church, to 
home and foreign missions and to the beloved oolloge. Who 



can ever fo/gL't tlie lioly repose ami joyful liope with wliicli the 
eldest of those two sisters awaited the cominrj of her Lord — re- 
joicing in the exalted christian character of her son Seymour 
Whitman, l']sq., wlio was one of the strongest pillars of the church 
from earlv manliuod to tlie dayof iiis clcath, and who all too soon 
for the church and the town followed his mother to tlu' world of 
glory. 

And there was Mrs. Deacon Skinner wliose house was the 
home of a bright and cheerful hos)>itality, where the young ]>eo- 
ple met such a cordial welcome and the old people found their 
spirits quickened by her genial wit and hearty good will. How 
quick Avas her step, ami how full of grace her manners, and how 
unvarying her Ihith in God her Saviour though suffering so many 
years the bereavement of widowhood and thotigh left cliildless 
amid the infirmities of extreme old age ; and how hard it was to 
believe that we could get on as well without her, even when the 
Lord called her in her ninety-fifth year to Himself 

I niiiy mention also the names of Mrs. I'rofcssor Kellogg and 
Mrs. Je.ssc Sabin and ]\Irs. Daniel Noble and Mrs. Gershom T. 
Hulklcy and Afis. Solomon Bulkley and ]\[rs. Keyes Danforth and 
!Mrs. Kobbins Ibilkley and ^Irs. Samuel Bridges and Mrs. Lyman 
Ilubbel and ]Mrs. Christopher Penniman and ]\Irs. Kliza Noble 
Brewster These are only a part of those Avho were most promi- 
nent and active in everv good work — and you Mill pardon me lor 
saying that next to seeing my o\\ n de.ir mother's name in the 
early records of the church, I glory in finding it year after year 
in the ^lissionary Herald as treasurer of this consecrated band of 
christian women sending their gifts to the end of the world. 

The ordination and installation of the Rev. Ralph W. Gridley, 
are among my earliest recollections in connection with the church. 
I think of him in the sick room and at the funeral of my young 
brother William, and afterwards performing the same duties for 
my grandmother Noble. I remember his fervent appeals in the 
conference room and in the pidpit, and I cannot forget that he laid 
his own gentle hands upon my head when I was ordained in this 
pulpit. To-day, as I attempt to gaze through the mists of more 
than thirty years, there rises before me his light form, with his per- 
son so neatly and modestly attired, his manners so simple and sin- 
cere, and his piety so deep and ardent. In the pulpit, though he 
stood in the shadow of some of the most eloquent and successful 



. 28 

of American proaclicrs, yet l)y the ]ico|»lo of liis flock liis remark* 
able iJueney of speech, and his sermons full of the Holy Scriptnres 
and of a rich clu-istian experience, were ever appreciated. He was 
the first to detect any new pulsations of s})iritual life in the church, 
while lii-s lieart leaped to meet any response from inquiring soul.>? 
to his solemn appeals. How tender was liis regard for the poor 
of his flock, and how welcome in the chambers of the sick and the 
dying ! Who among the bereaved ever failed to bear from his 
lips the words of Heavenly consolation? How untiring were hi.s 
l.ibors as he went from one district to another of his charge and 
how many scores and hundreds were gathered by his foitliful toil 
into this happy fold. During his pastorate of nearly 18 years 
over GOO persons were received into the church, being an average 
of more than 30 a year. 

The attractions of a new field in the enterprising West, whither 
some of the most fftithful and efficient of his flock had already 
gone, and where, free from a theological controversy which was 
then shaking so many of oui* souls, ho hoped for still greater use- 
fulness, finally separated him from this charge. Though success- 
ful in his new home in Illinois, his heart still lingered among these 
scenes. ]>ut the blaster had higher service than could be found 
in the church on earth, and he was soon transferred to the com- 
jianionship of Angels and the reward of the faithful. His minis- 

trv of so manv vears Avill ever remain a brii^ht and memorable 
♦ ' * . ..... 

period in the history of tliis church, while its fruits Avill not cease 

to be gathered here for many generations yet to come. 

But while this church Avas ever by its pastors and membership 
a source of pure and powerful iniliience, I desire to recognize the 
vital connection vthich in all these years ever existed between the 
church and the college. While the college gave distinction to the 
town, it imparted to the church through its eminent President 
and Professors, and its choicest young men, the very elevated 
tone and enlarged views by which they were distinguished. Who 
can estimate the value of such princes among good and strong men 
as Presidents P^itch and Griffin? The first was indeed the acting 
Pastor of thechurchfor morethansix years. Inaletter written some 
months :ifter]\[r. Swift's decease, President Fitch writes to a friend, 
'• T have preached about fifty sermons here, l)esidcs all the cares 
and distresses which have attended )ne in my fnmily and dis- 
charging all my or)]]o<j:o ilulics. S<-'ir>'("!y litno ]\:v- been !cT( iiieto- 



2\) 

take my nocossary food an<l it-st, ami I am still involvc-d in tliis 
8cene ofcoiistant care and ialiors, — too mm-li lor any ouo man to 
pcriorm." It was in tliis manni-r that he continued to labor, and 
the constant revivals that Itlcsscd the chnrcli from 1S(I'» to 1S1:J 
Wore fi'll ill the collctre in siicli power that a l-Avjiv numhcr <<1"lliC' 
students Avere converted and broui^ht into the ministry — amonj^ 
them (iordon Hall, tlie iirst of our missionaries in cliaracter as 
Avell as iti time, the iu'V. I'lof. C'liester Dewey, and the Kev. 
Charles .I('id<ins. 

It is wortliy of remark tJKit these rcvivnls he^inniiiLT 'm tlic 
diurch never failed to reach tlie college. They were in i':u-t one 
— heart heatiti;^ responsive to heart — -and all feelini; that the con- 
version of a yotm*; man in colleixo not only saved a soul from 
doatli, but ordinarily raised np a new ambassad.or for Christ, r.i:d 
perliaps a mis.sionary of the cross. 

The same state of tilings e.Ki.ste<l during tlio I'i-esidenoy of Dr. 
(Iriffm. l^'roni the very beginning, he felt iilentitied witli tlie church 
in all its efforts,- and co-operated Avith it in the most earnest and 
efficient manner. Forsevcral years he filled this puljiit lialf of the 
time, our Pastor preaching every third Sabliath in '' .'^outhparl," 
and on the otlier Sabbatli enjoying witli us tliose wonderful dis- 
courses whicli had electrified Boston in former years, and wliich 
shall ever remain an imperishable monument of ]iulpit eloquence. 
During those great revivals which lie was wont to say "savetl tlie 
college," there seemed indeed to be no limit to liis power of en- 
durance or to tlie zeal which in the winter vacation sent liim forth 
into our streets visiting from hruise to house, beseeching men to 
l)e reconciled to (iod. Who (»f us who heard them can ever for- 
get that course of Sabbath evening sermons in tlie old white scliool 
luMise, continued through .several months, and accompanicil by 
const.ant conversions and the increased christian strength of the 
scores of young converts who liung entranced upon Iiis lips? In 
tlie history of this church and college in all coming time, the names 
of Presidents Fitch and (xriftin will stand out not only on the mar- 
ble in the college cemetery which so api)ropriately records some 
of their virtues, but in letters of immortal beauty on the souls of 
those connected with this church who have gone forth to their 
life work under the insjiiration which they liere receiveil. 

Another man associated with thc!n boih in christian toil and in 
syrnp-ithy with th.e clmrch w.".s ]V-of. Chester Dcv.cy. How t;n- 



30 

tier was his heart. How cool and discrhiiinating his jutlgment. 
How much in advance of his time, wlicn, in 1823, he organized 
the young men of college into a society for the abolition of Ne- 
gro Slavery ! He was a man Avho AVith amazing power mingled a 
divine philosophy with his lectures and experiments in the lecture 
room, and by the keenness of his wit and the pertinency of his an- 
ecdotes fastened truth immovably in the soul. 1 shall never foi'get 
tlie time M'hen at the close of a lecture on chemistry he told us 
the story of Bruce and the spider, and ai>plied it to us in the great 
matter of securing for ourselves the crown of life. On the Sabbath 
day he not unfrequeutly stood in this pulpit and poured out from 
his full heart such solid sentences and paragraphs of christian 
doctrine, and with such fullness and pathos in his solemn and yet 
Avinning voice, that its tones are still sounding like Heaven's trum- 
pet in my ears. 

And can vre pass over another name— Prof Ebenczcr Kellogg, 
who lingered so long among us, and whose gentle virtues shone 
only brighter and brighter with the advancing years ! How ex- 
act was his knov»dedge, how pure his taste, how observant of 
those little things which make up so large a part of the realities 
of life. How noiseless was his tread as he went about busier 
and more anxious for others than for himself If a spring Avere 
loose in the machinery of college or the church or town Avas he 
not the first to detect it, and the most resolute and patient though 
the most unostentatious to remedy the VA'^rong ? Hoav persistent 
and faithful for many years as Superintendent of the Sabbath 
school, and how devoted to all the interests of the toAvn and 
church as Avell as the college. And Avhen his gentle hands Avere 
finally paralyzed in death, how many threads Avere soon tangled 
that his fingers had so skillfully guided, and Iioaa^ many props fell 
doAvn that he had so long kept in their places. His memory Avill 
be green here Avhen the roAV of beautiful elms, extending from the 
church to Avest college, Avhich he planted with his own hands, 
shall in the coming centuries be dry and dead Avith age and return 
to the earth wliich they noAV shade and adorn. 

And among the sad memories Avhich cluster around me in con- 
nection Avith the college, is that of Prof William A. Porter. His 
mind, all brilliant Avith the learning of the ancient and modern 
classics, his person so attractive for its manly beauty, and his man- 
ners so full of refinement and polished grace, seemed to be but a 



31 

Mulling mark liy which llic ci'f^t Aixher. Dentli, iiiiLclil giiiilf more 
surely his resistless arrow. When we hxid him away in tlie darkness 
of the tomb, it sccmeil tom-j that tlie world was shroudeil all over 
in a pall of mouniini;; and if it had not been for the ]»ri<4ht hoijos 
of th* immortal life which ilhuniiied his last hours, lifu itself would 
have appeared to mc not worth livincj. 

And should I fortjet the name and character of another so well 
and so long known among us in college and in this church. Prof. 
Edward Lasell ? Though I was one year in advance of him in 
college, yet I w.as very intimately associated with him tlicrc for 
three years, ami afterwards we were brought into still closer fel- 
low.ship as Tutors. We became earnest incjuirers on the subject 
of personal religion at the same time, and stood side by side in 
the j)ublic conlession of Christ in this church. He was the first 
scholar in his class, and when he was made a I'rofessor in the col- 
lege, Ins lectures were said to be very brilliant and attractive to 
the successive classes who enjttyed them, lie was a thoroughly 
lionest and upright man, and in .all his relations to the church and 
town he was eminently faithl'iil and useful, lie was stricken 
down in the fullness of his mtudiood, but his memory is still en- 
shrined in all our hearts. 

And in connection with these and other just men, whose s]»ir- 
its are now in Heaven, Avhat thoughts of past holy Sabbaths rush 
upon u.s — those old still days when the ])eople came forth from 
all these surrounding hills, and wound their way along so rever- 
ently on foot, on horseback, and in every variety of wagon and 
carriage, single and double, going up like the tribes of old to the 
temple of God. And wiien they reached tlie village all the church 
goers there hurried from their houses; and then as the bell began 
to toll the students might be seen crowding the gravelled walk 
and hurrying up the steps of the church to their place in the gal- 
lery, and to the four large pews assigned them below. IIow rev- 
erently the families stood up in thi'ir jjlaces when tlie minister 
made the i>rayer of invocation. Then when the ojiening hymn 
had been read the choir arose, fitty strong, exten<Iing around 
three sides of the gallery, the choicest of our young men and 
maidens mingled with those of graver years, and pouring forth 
the grandest strains of that old music which has not been im- 
])roved by all the changes with which men have tinkered it, just 
as they have tried to improve the jioelry of the divine Watts and 
even the I'salms of David him: elf 



32 

Then tlioro were tlio e )nfe!'cnce inectings so full of spiritual 
life — where the cluneh received and imparted some of its highest 
holy impulses, and where the deacons magnified their office in 
prayer and exhortation. And who can forget those venerable 
deacons of the good old times ? The first who held that*office 
are indeed but dimly seen through the shadows of the past. 
Deacon Wheeler and Deacon Meacham 2)assed. away long be- 
fore on!" remembrance; though we can never forget the son of 
the latter, whose sweet voice led us in our sacred songs, and 
■whose meek and holy life v.as such an honor to the church, and. 
whose grandson, Capt. ^Ieacham,now holds with a firm grasp the 
pleasant old home. And Deacon Stratton who was so mighty in 
the Scriptures, living before the days of popular commentaries ; 
and who by comparing scripture with scripture, and especially 
by taking the Old Testament as the divine key of the New, un- 
locked the treasures of the " unsearchable riches of Christ." 

And Deacon Ford wlio by his pure and quiet life at home where 
amid peculiar domestic trials he trained his family for God, and 
by his fidelity as an officer of the church for so many years illus- 
trated the virtues of a good and holy man, and left the impress 
of his excellence on the church and on his children and children's 
children who are to-day with us. 

And Deacon Skinner ! Is there one of those who once knew 
him who cannot now see him as he stood up to pray for Zion ? 
his voice gradually rising to- a shrill and trembling note and then 
breaking into tenderness while the tears came coursing down his 
venerable cheeks ! How clear and strong were his views of 
christian truth, and how firmly he stood here as a pillar in the 
temple of God. How i)leasant it is to know to-day that Avhile 
his three younger sons attained to lionorable positions in the pro- 
fession of law and were all like himself officers in the church of 
Christ, his three eldest sons also around whom his deepest anxie- 
ties were gathered, did for many years before their death exhibit 
a character unstained by vice, and proved to the world the bles- 
sings of that covenant which secures the favor of God to the 
cliihlrcn of good men after them. 

And is it proper for me to omit in this record of the past my 
own venerable father ':' lie always seemed to me to have many 
thoughts and cares for the kingdom of God to one for himself 
and his more immediate temporal interests. Living in ccmi)ara- 



ti\ L' iii(l(|)(-n(U'iico and iL-isiirc on tlio citalu iiilie-ritcil iVoiii liis 
fatlier, lie spent miu-h of liin tinu; in re.idini; Edwards and JCni- 
jiions and IJaxtorand William Mason and Doddriilgc and Thonuis 
ScH)lt, and in walcliing over tliL' interests of the church and tho 
town — using the olVice of a deacon Avell in guiding the erring 
and stirring u|) the good, and proving himself a useful citizen an«l 
an upright Justice by turning hiwsuits into arbitrations, while he 
himself set the exam])le of kind forbearance towards unfortunate 
delttors by maUing it a rule during his long christian life never to 
Fue a man ibr ilebt. His children all knew and deeply felt that 
he was a holy man living not for this but a better world, and thai 
what he most desired for them was not wealth or position but 
character and usefulness. 

And Deacon Smedley — the descendant of that Capt. Smedley 
whose name heads the list of the lirst settlers of the town. IIu 
A\ as a man as firm in liis opinions as lie was upright in his life; 
as tenacious of the "old ways" of doctrine and measures as he 
was attached to the J3ible and e\ cry thing good and true, lie 
loved his closet and the quiet of his own home too much perhaps 
in his last years, though his regularity and punctuality in coming 
to the ]>ublic worship of God were so established for three-score 
years that when his well-known carriage made its ap[)carance in 
the village all the people knew that it Avas time for them to go to 
the house of God. His mantle has fallen ujion his two surviving 
sons, one of whom, James Smedley, M. D., is now so accejttable 
and useful in the office of deacon so long held by his lionorcd 
father. A son of the fourth generation from the settlement of 
the town now cultivates the ancestral acres which have never 
passed out of the possession of the family and are increasing in 
beauty and fertility with (lie ]iassing yeai"s. May the Iloosic as 
it continues to roll through those rich meadows see no stranger 
with another name walking as lord upon its banks and gathering 
the rich harvests tliere from year to year. Let there be one sa- 
cred place left among us Avhere th<,' ]iroprietor can say '' here my 
fatliers from the beginning livetl and died belore me."' 

And Deacon Taft who answered so well the inspired descrip- 
tion of this important officer in the christian church, "grave, not 
double-tongued, not givcJi to much wine, not greedy of filthy 
lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience," ''ruling 
his children and his own house well" and •• having used the office 

b 



84 

of a deacon well purchased to himself a good degree and great 
boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." His oldest son is 
a Ruling Elder in a Presbyterian church, and his youngest, C. K, 
Taft, is and has been for many years the Postmaster of our town. 

And there was Deacon Stephen Smith of the Baptist church 
— a true yoke fellow of these good men, though differing from 
them on this one point of the ordinances of the church. How 
bright was his flashing eye ! and how strongly marked were the 
lines of his intelligent face. He could construct and bind to- 
gether an argument as firmly as he could weld the iron which he 
took from his glowing furnace and laid upon that old anvil hj 
the side of which he stood and toiled so many years. But though 
he worked in iron with his hands his heart was ever laying up 
the choicest treasures of golden truth. His integrity no one 
doubted. His purity of life never lost its brightness. His sons 
grew up around him bearing his image and three of them are now 
preaching the gospel which their father so much loved; and his 
daughters are remembered by us as among the chief and sweetest 
singers in our choir. The old shop in Water Street has passed 
away and its occupant has long since turned back to dust and 
the family are all scattered over the land — but his character shines 
on in unchanged lustre as we to-day gaze back into the past. 

As we turn away from this brief sketch of those who have 
been office bearers in the church will not all their descendants 
join me in saying with the beloved Cowper : 

" My boaat is not that I derive my birth 
From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth ; 
But higher far my proud pretensions rise 
The child of parents passed into the skies." 

The Baptist church of which Mr. Smith was a deacon, was first 
organized about thirty years after the settlement of the town and 
included in it several " members from Hancock, but was always 
small and Avas dissolved in 1811." Three years subsequently an- 
other Baptist church Avas formed, and uniting with the members 
of the Congregational church residing in " Southpart" they to- 
gether erected a very neat and comfortable meeting house — the 
Pastor of the Congregational church occupying that pulpit eveiy 
tliird Sabbath and the Baptists the other Sabbaths. But few in 
number and scattered over a large extent of country they have 
ever found it difficult to sustain the regular and stated preaching 



S6 

of the gospel. At present thoy have no public meetings as a 
church, fiiuliiig it more expedient with their feeble numbers to 
unite in the services of tlio Congregational and Methodist 
churches in the ditterent parts of tlie town. 

And this brings us to consider the many changes that have 
taken place in Williamstown during the last third of the century 
now under review. 

•n'o those of us who come back as I do after an absence of be- 
tween ilO and 40 years, these changes are very great and striking. 
An entire generation lias passed into the grave. The gray heads 
and venerable forms that we once saw in this church and j)assing 
up and down these ihoruugldhres are here no more. They lie in 
row after row in the graveyard sleeping their last sleep, and the 
names of not a few are actually forgotten or unknown by those 
who have taken their places. The old church itself is liere. It 
has indeed in the interior put on a new and more modern look. 
The lofty arched ceiling, the massive pillars below the galleries and 
the gracefully tinted columns above supporting the roof, the pul- 
pit i)erched up so high against the wall that it cramped the necks 
of us boys who looked up for any length of time to the preacher, 
the deacon's seat at the foot with its fixed communion table, and 
the great broad aisle in the centre where so many of all ages in 
our successive and glorious revivals stood up so reverently and 
to the joy of the church to make their public confession of Christ 
and enter into covenant with His people, the dear old s<]uare, 
roomy pews Avhere we sat surrounded by those we most loved 
and where the big muffs of our mothers and sisters and their 
briglit foot stoves softened the n'lv of winter i^round us — these 
are all gone forever. Aud doubtless it is well ; and we rejoice 
that those who come after us have a house for God so convenient in 
all its arrangi'ineiits and so well adapted to the purposes of Diviiuf 
worsliip. Outsiile we find the old church in most respects as it 
was from the beginning, though we cannot but miss the graceful 
aud lofty steeple which so wakened the wonder of our chihlhood 
and helped to connect the church below with the bright heavens 
into which the spire seemed almost to penetrate. Even the "Pino 
Apple'' which in after years took the place of the departed spire 
is ui^w gone. But we are glad to know that it is the pm-pose of 
those who have made these modern improvements to restore the 
ancient glories of the steeple of 1 ?!)><. 



30 

As we pass down the jirincipal street elianges meet us on every 
side. Not only now and ])lcasant cottages li:ive sprang np on 
evory side, and some of tlie old li«nst'S put on ncAV and in many 
cases Ijctter forms, but new streets liave been opened and tlio 
])0})ulation of the viHage greatly increased. I'ark street and 
Spi-iiig street sound strangely in our ears — while AV'ater street as 
it was with its half dozen houses associated M'ith the names of 
Capt. Town and Dennis Smith and Dr. Towner and Deacon 8mit^i 
and Deacon Meacham cannot be recognized in the comparatively 
crovv'ded dwellings that now meet your eyes. The whole empty 
space between the Green River Bridge and Smedley's hiH*'has< 
been turned into a populous street, while 8hattuck's Lane (now 
'•Depot strget") is being filled up with houses and bids fair to 
terminate in a busy village on the banks of the Iloosic. The old 
<puet stillness of the valley has l)een invaded and broken np for- 
ever by the shrill ,whistle of the locomotive and a foreign popula- 
tion is beginning to v/ork its way among our hills while their 
hands are busy in most of our homes. 

The East and the West colleges standing as they did on bleak 
hills M'here the young maples just then planted ga'>e but small 
])romise of their future beauty, have been multij)lied into eleven 
edifices embowered in groves of full grown trees and_sun'oimded 
by landscape gardening of rare taste and atiraction,'^while the 
number of professors and students has been more than doubled 
and the standard of scholarship made equal to that of numy and 
superior to most of tlie colleges of the land. 

And the changes in church relations have been almost as ini- 
merous. At the«commencement of the period now under review 
tlie Methodist church was just struggling into existence. Tiiey 
"were a feeble band meeting in a })rivate house in Water street to 
whom a circuit rider came once a month, and who assembled for 
wonsliip more frequently with their brethren in the adjoining 
town than in this. Uut Avith the increase of the population in 
connection with the enterprising manufacturers of shoos in Water 
street and of cotton goods at the foot of Main street, and through 
the christian fidelity and zeal of a few of their leading men, they 
soon enjoyed the regular ministrations of the gospel and the or- 
dinances which Christ has appointed. The private liouse was 
exchanged for a public hall; and as their numbers increased they 
built their very neat and substantial house Avhich stands at the 



37 

lioad of \Vator street. The sound of tlicir hell is iu)w liomd 
miiigliut; with tlKit of (lie C'ongrotiational church :iiid of the col- 
lego ch;i])el ciilliiiu: the jteoplu to the worship of (iod. The iiuiu- 
lier of their communicants has reached one huinlrcd, and a 
llourishing congregation w itli SaMiath school and Bil)le classes is 
estahlished in tliat pleasant locality. We -welcdnu' them most 
cordially as a sister church of Christ to the work which our cnni- 
niou Sa\ ioui' has gi\-en them and us to do and to enjoy. 1 loldiug 
firmly as they do the great doctrines of a Divine atonement 
ami justilication hy I'aith alone in the propitiation for sins made 
by Jesus Christ, and of the necessity of regeneration hy the 
Holy (Jhost, and of a holy life or the "ol>edience of faitli," we re- 
joice at their success; and our prayer is that in the new century 
which now Iti'gins they may have the happiness of a most lion- 
ored instrumentality in building up the kingdom of (iod among 
us and throughout the world. 

While this accession lias been made to the number of clmrchea 
in this part of the town, the members of the Congregatioii.al 
church, more than fifty in number, residing in " Southpart" as it 
w.as called forty years ago, have been organized into the 2d Con- 
gregational church, and for many years liave enjoyed the regular 
ministrations of the sanctuary. And following this, the ollicers 
and stuilents of tlie college liave establisheil a church of their 
own, and for several years past liave worsliipped by themselves 
in the college chapel. During this same period tbe Congrega- 
ti<iual church in North Adams has ])een constituted — its original 
membership con.«isting almost entirely of members dismissed 
trom this clnuch for the purpose. Regular preaching has al.-^o 
b( en established in Centreville which in former years sent many 
regular worshippers to this sanctuary. The result of all has 
been five additional places of worship instead of the one known 
of old, and this house which was once crowded in every part has 
an empty gallery; and though the pews are all rented below, 
yet they arc not all filled as in former limes. The membership 
of the church has also been reduced from over four hundred to 
less than two hundred and fifty — the great reduction having been 
occasioned by the organization of so many ncAv congregations, 
and by the emigration of some of the largest families to the far 
west, while the inroads of deatli liave also done tlieir constant 
work of exhaustion. 



38 

Against those URfavorablo influences a succession of faithful 
and earnest Pastors have labored with more or less success for 
thirty yeai'S : 

The Kev. Joseph Alden from July 3, 1834 to Feb. 10, 1836. 

The Rev. Albert Smith from Feb. 11, 1836 to May 6, 1838. 

The Rev. Amos Savage from Jan. 22, 1840 to Jan. 30, 1843. 

The iiev. Absalom Peters, D. D. from Nov. 20, 1844 to Oct., 
1853. 

The Rev. Henry R. Iloisington (a returned missionary) sup- 
plied the pulpit for about three years, and was succeeded by 

The Rev. Addison Ballard who resigned his pastorate about 
one year ago after a most fiithful and useful ministry of seven 
yeari. Since his resignation Prof Albert Hopkins has occupied 
the pulpit most of the time to the present autumn. 

During this period of 31 years, 427 persons have been received 
into the church — of these 115 were by letters of dismission from 
other churches, and 312 on examination and profession of their 
faith. 

"From the church records beginning with 1779 we learn that 
there have been fifteen hundred and ten persons in connection 
with the cliurch. At present there are on the church Register 
the names of 290 persons still nominally members, though I un- 
derstand a large number of these have removed from the town — 
le:5ving between 200 and 250 resident members. 

Considering then the frequent changes in the pastoral relation 
during the last thirty ye.irs, and the five new congregations that 
now assemble in distinct places of worship every Sabbath day, 
we have reason to congratulate ourselves that our venerable 
church enters ujion the new century Avith so much vigorous life, 
her membership still numerous enough to sustain the ministra- 
tions of the gospel at home, and to join in the grand and we trust 
triumphant assault which is about to be made upon the powers of 
darkness over the whole world. 

The first years of the century which we have now reviewed 
were passed amid the intense excitements which ended in the 
Revolutionary Avar. Then came the war itself rousing all the 
energies of the people and demanding its sacrifices of comfort 
and treasure and blood. It is said by his descendants that Xehe- 
miah Smedley, whose name is first among th# original settlers, 
not only took his crops of wheat and turned them into bread and 



89 

carted it through the ■\viMerncss to our army figliting tlie hnitlos 
of Bennington .ind Fort ]Ml',vartl and Saratoga, hut tli:it lie 
actually sunk halt' the value of his firm in his generous gills to 
the cause. Doubtless there were others as patriotic though they 
have left no descendants among us to till the story of their de- 
votion to the infant nation strugLjling into life. 

The last years of the century have l)een not unlike those with 
"which it began. A second war of independence has been fought 
and gloriously won; and v,e rejoice to-day that the chililren of 
Kuch fathers have jiroved themselves not unworthy of their sires. 
This town with the church and the college immediately arrayed 
themselves on the side of the Government hi its determination to 
maintain the life of the nation and to destroy forever that gi- 
gantic evil which had ever been our curse, and which in the just 
judgment of God threatened to be fatal to liberty all over the 
world. If I could call over the roll of honor to-day how many 
names would it be necessary to mention ! Our dead have been 
left on many battle fields, and some have returnAl to us to die of 
disease contracted in the discliarge of their liard duty. Some, 
like the gallant Col. Paul, have risen to high positions by tlieir 
distinguished merit; while others, like Chaplain Hopkins, have 
spent their strength in the hospitals of the sick and wounded, 
and in holding up the dear old flag on the field of conflict and of 
victory. Some of our daughters like !Mrs. ]\Iary Bardwell Marsh 
have first given up their sons to the cause, and theu followed on 
like ministering angels to care for the suffering in hospital wards 
crowded with the sick and dying soldiers. Wc thank (Jod that 
it was the privilege of so many among us to share in the sublime 
scenes of the past four years, while Ave rejoice together in the 
just and permanent peace which s})reads its blessings on every 
side. 

We ought not to close this history of the church without re- 
minding you that " revivals," or outpourings of the Holy Ghost, 
have ever been the joyful experience of the Williamstown church, 
and the grand source as v»'ell as proot of her constant vigorous 
spiritual life. The Kev. Mr. Swift died iu the midst of a revival 
Avhich continued through several years, and he added to the 
church nearly 3U0 members. After his death the revival con- 
tinued with delightful results under the faithful ministrations of 
I'resident Fitch ; and the year preceding the installation of Mr. 



40 

Kiiig,wliik' yet without a regular Pastor, 47 i)cr8ons were Lvor.glit 
into the communion of the churcl\. Durint; tlie ministry of the 
licv. Mr. Gridley thei-c Avcie seven revivals — several of them of 
amazing power — bringing into th.e church over GOO members, of 
Avhom over 500 were received on profession of their faith. There 
■were two revivals in connection with the labors of Kev. ^Ir. Sav- 
age, (luring whose pastorate of three years over one hundred 
were added to the church. During the pastorate of Rev. Dr. Peters 
lOG were received — most of them during revivals in 1847 and in 
1848. The ministry of the Rev. Mr. Iloisington was also signally 
})Iessed — especially in 1855 — when 50 persons were admitted into 
the church. So in 1858 and in 18G2 under the pastorate of the 
Rev. Mr. Ballard there were gracious quickenings from the Spirit 
of God by which about 70 persons were added to the church. 
One result of these revivals has been the introduction of between 
30 and 40 young men from those who have first made a profes- 
sion of their f;iith in Christ in this church, into the christian min- 
istry. * 

The history then of the cluirch and the town is well worthy 
of our remembrance. Our record of the past, though doubtless 
marked and marred in the sight of God by the great imperfec- 
tions Avhich belong to our fallen race, is yet one which illustrates 
the excellence of the christian life and exalts our views of the 
riches of tlie grace of God. To-day, through our sons and 
daughters who have gone out from our dear old home, Ave are 
in fact connected with all parts of the land, and even with the 
distant nations of the earth. Our close association as a town 
with the college has resulted in the liberal education of more of 
our young men in proportion to our population than can be found, 
in any other town of our county and probably of our State. I 
can myself recall the names of seventy-live men who have been 
sent out from the lamilies of this town to occupy important po- 
sitions in the learned professions — of these 40 are lawyers, 10 
physicians, 21 clergymen, and 3 foreign missionaries, — Gordon 
Hall, Nathan lienj.imin, ami Marshall I). Sanders. 

A very large number of our daughters have intermarried witli 
members of the different learned i)rofessions who were educated 
at the college,, and have thus been taken away to distant homes. 
One of them, jMrs. ^Mary Perry Ford, has for almost 20 years lieen 
toiling by the side of her distinguished husb:ind in the land oi' I'.il- 



11 

Csline it^jcll", wliilo n lurgc mniilicr hiue j^ont' to the liumc mission- 
ary fields in the west, ami to jiositions ol'lioiior and nsefulm'ss in 
many of the hirge cities of onr own country. In ll»is way the 
AVilliamstown chiu-ch is most intimately connected -with tveiy 
part of the land and her influence extended far and wide on every 
side. In fact as I review the past history of this church since tlio 
cstablislunent of tlie college hei"e in 171)3, I am convinced that no 
church in the land has occnj)iod a position of greater responsibility; 
and as events have proved in connection with foreign missioni as 
well as with her own christian life and work, no church has wit- 
nessed results of a more cheering and blessed chaiactcr. " The 
Lord bare them and carried them all the days of old.'' 

And now in conclusion permit me for a few moments to look 
into tlie new century which is opening before us. 

This town bids fair to inorcnsein population and in Avealth with 
the number of its years. The wliole valley of the lloosic will bo 
filled with a busy people. All these hills around us looking out 
upon scenery of unsurpassed beauty and magnificence are destined 
to be cov-ered with rich villas of returned townsmen and others, 
who will come to breatlie the pure mountain air and enjoy the 
refined literary society which will gather more and more around 
the beloved college. The college itself entering upon the new 
century with a l*resident whose published works have given him 
a national reputation, and whose known devotion to the Kingdom 
of God has i)laccd him at the liead of the great American Society 
ot Foreign Missions, is destined with its strong corps of expe- 
rienced Professors and its high standard of scholarship, to still 
greater enlargement and usefulness. And in the midst of all this 
church is to stand unchanged, we hope, in its attachment to the 
Bible and the great doctrines of grace, to revivals of religion in 
connection with the special outpourings of the Holy Ghost, and 
to foreign missions as the duty of all christians and the certain 
hope of a lost world. 

And the waves of the great sea will still roll on as tliey have 

in the past. They will sometimes be " troubled and cast up mire 

and dirt." But Mhilc 

"Tho wlioIe round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about tho feet of God," 

the tides of human life that .shall press their waylhrougli these 
vallies and dash against these hills will still be under the control 
G 



42 

of Ilim -who " Ijarc tlicm aud can-ied llicm all the days of old." 
You and I will jiass away as the drops arc exhaled from the crests 
of the Lrcaking surf, and ascend unseen into the heavens above 
them. And Avhen our children's children gather here for tlie 
Second Centennial may we be able to look down upon them from 
that world where Time with its cycles of years .and centuries 
gives place to the unchanging bliss and glory of the Heavenly 
State — Amkx. 



ERRATA. 

Till psigc, l.'Uli line from the bottom read "begin" instead of " began"— and on 
tlie same page !• lines below " pynimids" instead of " pynnids" 
Itth page, 8th line from the bottom road " orighi" instead of " original" 
;{2d page, 11th line from the top read " son" instead of grandson" 
awh page, 13th line from tlie bottom flU np the blank with the word "air" 
3(ith page 13th lino from the bottom re.ad " any" instead of " many" 
Sttth page, 12th line from the top read " itself" instead of " themselves" 



APPENDIX. 

There 18 ample groiuul lor the belief that WilliaiustoAVn, no 
less than the college whieh bears its name, owes its origin to 
Ephraim Williams. Having, in 1744, been intrusted with the 
com;nan(l of the northern frontiers of the colony, ■westward from 
the Connecticut river — he built Fort Massachusetts in the summer 
of that year, and made it his headquarters, and was tl)us made 
acquainted with the Valley of (he Iloosac. His quick eye could 
not fail to mark its beauty anil attractiveness as a ])lace of settle- 
ment. There are suilicient indications, in the public records, that 
it Mas owing to his representations, made to the leading men of 
the western part of the Province, -with whom he had acquired 
great influence, that the General Court, in the winter of 174D 

jtassed the following order : 

In IIoisE Rkvs. Ai'R IS, 1749. 
Ordered, That Col. Dwiprht & Col. Clioatc with .sutli as the Hon. Board .shall 
join be a eomniittec to repair to the Provinee Land.s near Iloo.-iiU'k, as soon a.s may 
lie, with a skilful surveyor and chainnicn undiT oath, and lay out two Townships of 
the contents of six miles sciuaro, in the best of the land and in as regular form a."* 
may be, joining them tojrether, and return a correct plat of said Townships to thi.-* 
court for their further order thereon. And also to return the course and distance 
s.'iid Towns hoar from Fort Massachusetts. 

This order was concurred in by the Council, and Oliver Part- 
ridge, Esq., was joined to the coninrntee on the part of that body. 

The manner in which the committee discharged their <luty is 
set forth in their report made on the 10th of Nov. following, by 
Oliver Partridge, their chairman. It was as follows, to wit : 

Towns V. 115, p 532. 

The com. appt'd by the Great & Gen Court in A]m\ liist to repair to the Province 
lands near Iloosuck to lay out two Townsliips of the contents of six miles square &C 
Report — 

That on the 2C day of October the com. went from Hatlield, and the next day 
came to Fort Ma.ss -(having obtained Mr Nathaniel Dwi^rht a skilfull Surveyor to 



44 

SUVVcy the Ti)\vnsliiiia) The next day wo wont out to viow llic lands, ordevod th 
Burveyor to measuro the dii<tance from the fort to the lino tliat is run between this 
Govt.'rnnient & New Ilampshiio (which was run some years since by Mr. Ilazzcn) 
and on Monday & Tuesday following we proceeded to view the lands. In the mean- 
time directed the Siivvr to take the courses & distances of ye adjacent mountains, 
and when we had sufficiently satisfied ourselves in what form the Townships be laid 
out, we directed the Survr to lay them out agreeable to the plan herewith presented 
(Having caused the Surv & chainmen to be sworn.) 

As to the quantity of intervale contained in the townships, we made no particular 
incasurc thereof by the survey, but carefully viewed the townships and would inform 
that the land on the river, running through the centre of the East Township for 
more than 4 miles northerly and southerly about half a mile East & West appeal's 
rich & good, a considerable part thereof is intervale. 

In the West Township there is no so great quantity of Intervale, but a veiy val- 
uable and rich tract of land in the middle of the Township, insomuch that the com. 
do deon the West Township the most valuable. 

Orer.t part of the land in both townships is considerably loaded with tiniber. 

As to the quality of lands adjoining sd townships the Com. would inform that on 
the East of .sd Townships lie the Groat Iloosuck Mountain (so-called) which is 
iibout 7 miles from side, on which mountain there is a sutticicnt quantity of land for 
a township or two — a great part of it is valuable — On the West side of the West 
town lays a range of mountains, an i between the two townshiiis lays another range 
of mountains over which the dividing line runs — Between the North line of the 
East town and the Province lino the land is mountainous and broken — and the land 
on the south of sd town is — some very poor and some of it good and accommodable 
for settlement. 

All which is humbly submmittcd in the name and by the order of the Commttec. 

OV. PARTIIIDGE. 

Nov. 10. 1710. 

In council Dec. 8. 1749 Read & sent down. 

At the next session, January, 1750, tli& settlement of the town- 
,ships thus hiid out "was under the consideration of the Lcgish^ture, 
and the result was the adoption by hoth branches of the following 
orders : 

In Ho. Reps. Jaxu.vry 17, 1749 (17J0 New Style.) 

Voted, That Col. Miller and Capt. Ijvermore with such as the Hon. Council 
Rliall appoint be a com. to lay out 63 house lots in the Westernmost Township 
(Each house lot to draw one sixty third part of sd. Township) one for the first set- 
tled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the school, as near the centre of the 
Township as may be with convenience, the said lots to contain 10 or 12 acres each 
ns the Com. shall best judge-^said house lots to be adjoining — and also that said 
Com. be directed to lay out such Highways, streets and lanes to and amongst the 
ht)use lots as .shall be necessary and convenient, and that said Committee have 
power to admit sixty settlers or inhabitants into said Township — each of them shall 
be entitled to one sixty third part of said Town-ship upon the conditions following 
viz. — That each settler pay the Com. upon his being admitted, £6. 13. 6 I,awful 
money for the use of the Government, and that he shall within the .space of Two 
years from the time of his being admitted build a house 18 feet long, 1-5 feet wide 
and seven foot studd, and shall fence five acres of his said house lot and bring the 
same to English grass, or fit it for plowing and raising of wheat or other com., and 



45 

shiill artunlly by lli.'Tnsolvrs or assigns resido on said kousc lot five years in seven 
from the time of their hf.-ing admitted — and that they do settle a learned OrtluKlux 
minister in said Town within the term of live years from the time of their btinff 
admitted — And in ease the afi^resaid conditions are not fulfilled, aecording to tho 
true intent and inoaninjj thereof — that then such settler or settlers' right shall bo 
fiirfeit and revert back to tho Province to be disposed as the Gen. Court sholl and 
may hereafter order and determine — any thing in their grant to the contrary not- 
■withstnnding. 

And that the sd Com. be further directed to take a bond of each person by them 
adjiiitted as a settler of the penal sum of fifty pounds money payable to the Pro- 
vin< e Treasurer or his superiors in sd oflice for tho faitliful performance of the 
condirions of sd grant — the sd Com to make report o£ their doings — and due re- 
turn of sd bonds to the Province Treasurer as soon as may be — who. shall be paid 
for their service out of monies received of the settlers — And as to the Easternmost 
Township to be settled as tho Gen Gourt shall oi-der. Sent up for Concurrence. 

TIIOS. IIUBBAKD, Speakr Pro Tempore. 

In eounc-il Apr C. 17^0 

Head and Concurred and James Ninatt Esq is joined in the affair. Saml IIol- 
Lrook Depy Secretary 

Consented to S. Phipps. 

The committee entered upon their work Avithout delay. Sixty- 
three lots, fourteen rods wide, were laid out on each side of a 
broad street running from Green liiver to Hemlock Brook, and 
a portion of them disposed of in 17G1 — many of them to ofliceru 
and soldiers in Fort Massachusetts — as appears from the following 
petition of Capt. Williams, presented to the General Court ii; 
Feb., 1750 (1751 Xew Style), and the order of the Court thereon 

Feb. 1750 — Petition of Ephm Williams Commander of Fort Massachusetts : 
Must Humbly showeth that your petitioner liath been detained in Boston ever 
since ye last of Nov. past waiting for money due to him and Company out of tho 
Province Tre.isuary for which he hath his warrants duly executed But there be- 
ing no money in the Treasury for the payments of them, he must cither wait lon- 
ger (which is very expensive) or return home without ; ye later of which will bo 
very Detrimental (as also the former hath been) by reason that fifteen of the Letts 
in ye land to the westward of sd Fort Massachusetts, an (by the Committee ap- 
pointed for the sale of them) virtully Bargained to some of his soldiers upon con- 
ditions they speedily pay what they bargained to give, which they (foremost of 
their money due aforcsd) are unable to do and so consequently must lose them, 
and as that would be a great disappointment, therefore your petitr Humbly prays 
Your Honr and Honrs would direct the Comce aforcsd to take ye warrantis above 
mentioned into their own hands, they advancing the Contents of them to your 
Petitr, which will not only enable sd soldiers to pay for sd L<jtts, but Save your 
I'etitr a vast charge, which he humbly hopis your Honor and Honors in your 
known wisdom will do and as in duty bound will ever pray— signed E. AVilliam.'i 
Jr— (own hand) 

Uorst: Rkps. Feb. 7, 17-50. 
Reed and Ordered that the Comce for adfliitting settlers in the West New Tewn- 
ship at Ho.i>u<k, be and they hereby are directed and impowered out of the monya 



40 

which thoy shall roocivc from tlvo said &ettlorR lO paj- Iho williin namoil Williams 
the money duo ou said warrants — lie delivering the sd committee with proper or- 
ders on the Treasurer to discount the same with them. 

And the said committee are also allowed to admit as many of the Soldiers at 
Fort Massachusetts, as Settlers as they shall judge proper. Sent up for concur- 
rence. T. HUBBARD Spier. 
Concnrred— Consented. T. Thipps. 

Deposition of the proprietors who purchased lots Avith the in- 
tention of settling on them, together v/ith other persons who had 
purchased of original grantees and commenced "Work in the new 
township. But as yej; no provision had been made for tlieir legal 
organization as a "Propriety" as it was called. The following 
petition, presented in Sept., 1753, informs ns of the time and 
manner of securing the proper legislation for that purpose : 

To His Exclly William Shirly Esqr Captain General &c., the Honhle his Majisty'a 
Council, and House of Representatives in General Court assembled Sept. 1753. 
The Petition of us th^ Subscribers in behalf of ourselves and Others, Proprie- 
tors of the West Hoosuck Township at Hoosuck, Lately sold by the General Court 
Humbly Shcwoth 

That the General Coui-t was pleased to open the sd Township and lay out the 
House lots under the Direction of the Courts Comtee, and the Proprietors owners 
of said lots an divers of them at work upon them and bringing- forward Settle- 
ments ; but upon advisement find they fire incapable of Calling and Holding meet- 
ings, without the 'Aid of yr Excolcy and Honours which are exceedingly want in 
Order to agree upon the building a Meeting House, Setling a Minister, Making Di- 
vision of other Lands and to do and Transact all such matters and .things as may 
be necessary and proper for proj^rictors of New Townships to do. Wo therefore 
Humbly pray yr Excelr and Houuis to appoint some proper person to call a Meet- 
ing of said proprietors for such purposes as may be necessary and direct a method 
of calling- meetings of said ijroprs in the future, and as in duty bound shall Ever 
pray &c. 

ISAAC AVYMAN 
ELISIIA HIGGIXS ALLIN CDRTISS 

SILAS PRATT DARIUS MEAD 

TYRAS PRATT SETII HUDSON 

GIDEON WARRIN THOMAS TRAIN 

EZEKL FOSTER EBENR GRAVES 

ELIHU CURTISS 
I>- THF. House of Representatives Septr 10. 1753 
Read and Voted that Israel Williams Esqr one of his Majs Justices of the Peace 
for the County of Hampshire Issue his Warrant for calling a meeting of the pro- 
pi-ietors of the AVest Township at Hoosuck so called Directed to one of the princi- 
l>al proprietors of sd Township, Requiring him to set up a Notilication in some 
public place in sd Township Setting forth the time, place and Occasion of sd Meet- 
ing fourteen days beforehand, which Meeting shall be holden in sd Townshi]?, and 
.such of the proprietors as shall be present at sd Meeting are hereby authorized and 
impowered bj' a Maj. vote to Determine upon a Division of all or apart of the 
Lands in said Township not already allotted, also Chuse a C'omtcc or Comtccs to 



47 

lay nut tliu Mimo, ulso lo raise monoys to dflVay Iho Charges Ihat may arise by 
means of laying out sd Lands, also fur Clearing Highways, as ulso to Chase a pru- 
jirictors' Clerk, Treasurer, Assessors and Collectors and also to agree and deter- 
mine ui>ou a method of calling meetings of said proprietors for the future. 

Sent up for Coneurrcneo 
T. IIUBBAllD Sp'k'r 
In Council Sept. 10. 17-53— Re.id and Concurred 

Tiros CLARK Dep. Sec'y 
Consented to W. SIIIllLEY. 

I3y virtue of the aljovc provision the proprietors -were tluly 
org.nnizcd, and moeting.s lieKl, the olBcial recoril of one of -wluch 
is still extant. 

These hardy pioneers -were not permitted long to continue tho 
Avork of '' bringing on '' their new settlement Avithout molestation. 
In the summer of ITo-t, the settlement at " Dutch Iloossuck " 
(Iloosic Falls) was broken up by the Indians, some of the people 
killed and the remainder forced to lice to Fort Massachusetts for 
jtrotection. The settlers at " West Iloosuok'' immediately abau' 
doned the place. Those having families sought shelter at Fort 
Massachusetts and otliers returned to their homes. 

The following petition for aid, presented to the General Court 
in October or November, gives an interesting account of their 
condition, and discloses the names of those who first occupied 
the town with their families, and thus are entitled to the designa- 
tion of the "first settlers.'' 

To His Excellency AVm Shirley Esqr Captn Genl and Govprnor In Chief in and 
over his Majesty's Provinco of tho Massachusetts Bay and &c. 
To the Ilonble his Majcstys Council and Tho House of Representatives in Genl 
Court Assembled— Oct. 17- Hoi. 

Tho Petition of the inhabitants of West Iloosuck — Humbly Sheweth 
That upon Survey of the Plan of sd Township and from tho information of tho 
Grntn of this Honourable Court that sold us oui* Respective Lotts wo aro abun 
dantly Satisfied that tho Government designed it for a Barrier Town into ■which 
Succour upon any rupture would be throM-n, which induced us to take up with 
Narrow Lotts less than fourteen Rods wide and thereby subject ourselves to the in- 
conveniences of living in a Huddle, also to give moneys for our Land (which tho 
Government has had the Benefit of) which used to be given upon the promise of sel- 
ling and Large Bonds to tho Provinco Treasurer for Scttleing which now he against 
us (zc. But may it pleaso your Excellency and llonrs Such is our case ivi)on the 
lato Alarm wo for Shelter ran to fort Massachusetts and are there with our familys 
who Clutter tho Fort, and make our lives and that of tho Soldiers very uucomfort- 
Hblo— in this poor Situation your Pettnrs are waiting your Excellencies and Hon- 
ours Directions how to Bestow our ourselves, and would let your Excellency know 
there is about E&.vviix families or vs that would gladly llcturn to our Settle- 



48 

uients, and a considerable number more, could we receive proper iucourai,'cmt from 
this Honable Court, Whose Determination we all Humbly wait 
Aud as in Duty bound shall ever pray &c 
Signed by 
JONA MEACHM SETH HUDSON 

GIDEON WARRIN WILLIAM CIIIDESTER 

BENJ. SIMONDS E/EKL FOSTER 

OLIVER AVERY ALLIN CURTISS 

THOMAS TRAIN JABEZ WARRIN Junr 

JA13EZ WARRIN 

The Government docs not appear to liave responded favorably 
to this petition for aid. Col. Israel Williams, the military com- 
mander of the " Western Frontier," did not deem it wise to 
attempt to sustain the new settlement while a French and Indian 
■war Avas imminent. He advised the settlers to remove their 
gathered crops of wheat and other eftects to a place of safety. 
A portion of them, of Avhom Jonathan Meacham was one, entered 
the service under Ephraim Williams, and were with him in the 
expedition to Crown Point during the following year. The first 
evidence of any attempt to renew the work of settlement, is con- 
tained in the following petition of William Chidester for aid 
to erect a bloch-house — which Avas presented to the General 
Court on the 18th of January, 1756 : 

f To his Honour Spencer Phipps Esq Commander in Chief in 

_, . f +V. I *^*^ over His Majesty's province of the Massa-chusetts Bay in 

trovince ot tne , -^^^ En-land, To the Honouiable His Majesty's Council, and 

Massachusetts Jiay I jj^^^^ ^^ Representatives in General Court assembled the 18 

[ Day of Jany 1756 

The Petition of William Chidester of the Place called Hoosiick in the County of 

Hampshire in said Province Humbly Shews : 

That your petitioner j)urchased several lotts of land in the Westerly Township 
called lloosuck Townships, which lays about four miles to the westward of fort 
Massachusetts, and had Removed his family on to said lots In order to Perform the 
Duties Injoincd the several Purchasers of lotts in the said Township, with an ex- 
pectation that the other purchasers would have followed him to fullfill their obliga- 
tions on their Respective lotts, and so strengthen the Town, that they might not 
only Defend ourselves against the common Enimy, but bo a Barrier to Province, 
But so it is that Your Petitioner and Some Others, to the amoukt op nvE fami- 
lA's are left alone in the said Westerly Township as he apprehends in Emmenant 
Danger of being Murthered, and their substance destroyed by the Common Enimy, 
as there is but about five familys between his habitation, and the place Colcd Scoto- 
hook (Schaghticolce) in the Dutch County which the Indians and French burnt and 
distroycd the last fall. Notwithstanding our forces were at lake George at the same 
time. Your Petitioner therefore humbly Prays your Honour and Honours would 
be Graciously pleased to take his Distrest Condition into your wise Consideration 
and grant such Releifc as in Your great Wi:>dom you shall see meet. And as in 
Duty bound shall ever pray " WILLIAM^IIIDESTER 



49 

In lIorsK of IlKrnr.sr.xTATiVF.s, Janv 18. I'-Vt 
Read and Onlrird, That the prayer of tluH Petu be m far granted as that tho 
('oiniiiamlcr in C'liicf be di.sired to {five orders, Tliat if tho Proprietors of siiid 
Townsliip or any part of them shall at their own cost and charge erect a suflieient 
lUork house in said Town, ix tick i'i.a( k c.vli,ki» the sqvakf, by tho tenth day 
of Manh next, that then there be allowed Ten Soldiers, either out of the number 
now Stationed at Tout Massaelmsetts, or otherwise by a new Levy as this Court 
shall juil^'c best : and that tho sd proprietors or sueli of them as shall appearand 
labour in the Erecting of sd Fout bo allowed their Subsistence out of the province 
stores for the space of two months; ami that if tho Proprietors shall not appear 
by the tenth of March next to erect a Block-house on the place called tUo square, 
that then the Petitioner with such as shall appear spirited with him, and shall erect 
a Block-houso uoind his house and the two otueu hovsks coxvknient to 
iiF. taken in, shall be entitled to tho same subsistence above sd while building 
said Block-house, and that when sd Block-house is finished Ten of the Inhabitants 
which sliall have Erected said Block-house be put into pay and subsistence during 
yo Courts pleasure, and that the Commander in Chief be disirod to give orders that 
there be a Guard of Ten men taken from Fort Massachusetts to guard the Labour- 
ers while they are work on sd Block-house 

Sent up for Concurrence 

T. HUBBARD Spkr 
In Cou»cJl Feb 2. Read and Concurred 

TIIOS CLARK Depty Scc'ry 
Consented to W. SHIRLEY. 

On the 6tli of Feb., Gov. Shirley issued an order in accordance 
■Nvith the foregoing request, authorizing Chidester to build a block- 
house on the square if a sufficient number should join him so as 
to complete the work by the 10th of March ; otherwise to build 
around hi.s OAvn and two other houses. Chidester, aided by Ben- 
jamin Simonds, Seth Hudson and Jabez "Warren proceeded at 
once to erect the block-house on the ca'-tcrn line of his OAvn lot, 
Avhich was the third west or twenty-eight rods from the present 
Mansion House, on the north side of the street. 

Ten men from Fort Massachusetts served as a guard to the work- 
men from Feb. 29th to March 29th, when the work was completed. 
Others, who had left the place on the alarm in 1754, returned and 
aided in tli« work, amongst whom were Xchcmiah Smedley and 
Josiah and William Horsford. 

In obedience to the following order of the General Court, 
Capt. Wyman, March 23d, detailed five men from Fort Massa- 
chusetts under the command of Sergeant Samuel Taylor, to guard- 
the new work, in connection with the men who had built it. 

MAncH 9th 1756 

Ordered, That there Itc Forty Men at Iloosuck and no more. Thirty whereof to 
be posted at Fort Massachuijetts, and ten at the West Township, the said Ten at 
yc West Township to be inhabitants of sd Townsliip, if there shall be so many in^; 

7 



§0 

habitants effective for the service, alwaies iiicluding the men that shall have been 
concerned in building the Block-house agreeable to the vote of this Court of the 
28th of Jany last 

Dissatisfied with this arrangement, Chidcster -n-ent to Boston 
in April and obtained from Gov. Shirley a Sergeant's commission 
and authority to supersede Taylor in the command of the fort. 

Meanwhile a portion of the settlers were not satisfied with the 
proceedings of Chidester and his friends, and on the 27tli of May, 
Thomas Train in their behalf presented the following petition for 
aid to build another fort. 

To His Honour Spencer Phipps Esq — Lieut Govr and Commander in Chief of His 
Majisties Province of Massachusetts Bay &c 

The Honble His Majisties Council and ye Honble House of Representatives in 
General Court Assembled— May 26. 1756. 

The memorial of Thomas Train of West Hoosuek in behalf of himself and Di- 
vers others of the Proprietors of West Hoosuek, Humbly Sheweth : 

That your Memorialist and others of the Proprietors of ye aforesaid Township, 
■would with ye countenance and encouragement of ye General Court build at tbeir 
own proper cost and Charge a Block-house at said place upon the Square so called 
which will be of special service in order to bring forward a settlement iv said place, 
and beg leave to Ilcpresent that ye Block-house (if it wil bear ye name) built by 
William Chidester and others answers no good purpose and was erected contrary to 
the minds of ye Proprietors in general, and as we think contrary to ye design and 
order of ye Genl Court ;■ thei-efore your memorialist humbly begs leave to erect a 
Block-house at ye aforesaid place of ye following Dimensions viz : Eighty feet 
square, two mounts twenty feet square, with a sufficient Watch Box to ye same — ai 
with Hewn Timber. And that your Honours in your wonted goodness would sub- 
sist your memorialists whilst erecting said Block-house and grant them such a num- 
ber of men to mantle ye same (During their perilous season) as your Honours in 
your great wisdom shall see best and as in Duty bound shall ever pray. 

THOMAS TRAIN 

Mit Records Vol 9. p. 882 

Attached to said petition is the following srrbscription^ to wit: 

Fort Massachusetts May ye 10. 1756. 
We the subscribers da promise to pay unto Any Person Or persons the several 
sums subscribed if they will undertake and finish a sufficient fort on the Square in 
the West Township at Husack so called at the eompleat finishing said fort — the 
Dimentions are as followeth viz. said fort to be 80 feet square with two mounts each 
20 feet square, the said Fort to be built of hewn timber aiMl a sufficient Watch Bos. 
— and we the Subscribers do promiso-to pay the several sums subscribed ov to work 
till we have Compleated the Supc-rscription, as witness our hands — 
ISAAC WYMAN 6-0-0 THOMAS TRAIN 3-0-0 

BEN SYMONDS 3-0-0 ELISIIA HIGGINS 1-10-0 

AVILLIAiyi MEACHAM 3-0-0 WILLIAM TRAIN l-IO-O 

TYRAS PRATT 1-6 8 JOSEPH IIAWLEY 18-0 

GAD CHAPIN 3-0-0 JONATHAN MEACHAM 2-0 

JOHN WELLS 3-0-0 DEllICK WEBB 0-1-10 

NOAH PRATT 1-6-8 JOHN MOFFAT 3 

SAML TAYLOR 3 



51 



l^iglil or ten of the above suhscrllicrs ■were settlers. Train 
Avas the son-iii law of Siinonds, ami liis (Icsceiidaiits are still resi- 
dents of tlio town. No response appears to liavc been made to 
Ills petition. 

]\[eanwliile there were runiors of an approaching enemy. The 
block-honse was destitute of artillery and »vith only ten men as a 
garrison. Early in June, Chidestcr went to Boston again, and 
presented the two petitions which follow, and which, with their 
signatures, seem to throw light upon the condition of aftairs at 
that time. 

Xeither of the petitions received any response. Other matters 
were pressing too heavily. 

To liis Excellency William Shirley Esq. Capt General, &c, and to tho Honblo his 
Majesty's Council, and tho Honourable House of Representatives in General 
Court As.sciiibk'd. 

The Petition of tho Proprietors of the West Iloosuck Humbly sheweth, 
That wlnrcas ten of the Proprietors of West Hocsiuk have obtained Liberty 
fi-oni the Honble Court to build a Fort in sd township with the Incourngeinent of 
tho Pay and Subsistence of tho Province as Soldiers, and as there is allowed forty 
(III n for tho Defence of the western frontOt'rs at fort Massachusetts and AVcst Iloo- 
suck, fort Massachusetts is a Considerable Part of it fell down and it is Daly expec- 
ted the rest w^ll fall — and Concluding tho Province will Either Rebuild that fort 
agin or liild some other for tho Defence of the fronteor, your Petitioners Humbly 
I'rays that Massachusetts fort may not be Rebeilt but that wo may Have the Lib- 
erty of Erecting a fort in our township that shall answer the (same) intent of the 
Government as that, and that we may have tho artillery and tho seame strength al- 
lowed as was there — and inasmuch as those ton of our Proprietors Have already 
bcu at great cost in Erecting a block-house in town, and Have Don it in such a 
mai;c'r as with some addition will accomadato the whole propriety, your Petitioners 
Humbly Praieth thtt we may Have the Like Encouragement allowed us as those 
ten Have, and we will forthwith join those ten, and by adding other work to tho 
fort allready Built make it a su(llci<>nt fort to answer the intent of the Government 
ns a foit instead of Hoosuck fort, which will at onco Build up this town & will be 
as much Defence to the Government and for less Charge, tho Determination of 
whiih your Pettrs shall wait and as in Duly bound shall ever Pray — 
JOSLVH DEAN ELISHA HIGGINS 

SA"MUEL KELLOGG SETH KENT 

NEHEMIAII SMEDLEY JOSIAH HORSFORD 

JONATHAN KYLBORNE JESSE SAWYER 

SOLOMON BUEL ELNATHAN ASIIMUN 

ELISHA CIIAPIN TYRAS PRATT 

NOAH PRATT ENOS HUDSON 

GIDEON WARRIN 
June 9th 17o6— presented. Referred to ye next Sitting 
Petition- of William Chidester. 

Boston, June 10. 17o6 
May il please your Honor, 
Whereas there are now two small swivel Guns in Fort Massachusetts unimproved 



by said Ganison who are otlierwiso supplied with Artillery, and the same would be 
of Singular Service at the Block-house at Hoosuck where they are destitute of 
any artillery. This is to pray the Favor of your Honours rctrard to our circum- 
stances in Exigency as to give Orders that the same may be removed from thence to 
said Block-house at Hoosuck, with arimiunition for the Improvement of said Swivel 
Guns in case of need. Or otherwise supplyed as your Honour shall judge necessary 
at this time of Danger. And your Petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray &c 

WILLIAM CHIDESTER 
To the Honourable Spencer Phipps Esq. Ltt Govr & Commander in Chiefe of the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay. 

Chidester returned to his fort. Bui liis term of service was 
drawing to a close. On the 11th of July " the block-house was 
beset by a large party of the enemy," and Chidester, one of his 
sons and Capt. Elisha Chapin were killed. They were probably 
surprised Avithout the fort ; for it is stated that on the 2d day 
from the attack, " Capt. Wyman sent twenty men to search for 
the body of Capt. Chapin, who foimd him and buried him in a 
decent manner and returned with his family to Ft. Mass." 

Seth Hudson succeeded to the command of the fort, which re- 
ceived considerable accessions of men at various times during 
the next two years. Ammunition and subsistence were supplied 
from the older fort, and the work of settling the town went on 
gradually. 

But the principal body of the settlers felt themselves aggrieved 
at what they conceived to be the stinted and niggardly supplies 
of men and provisions received from the commander at Fort 
Mass. On the 11th of January, 1757, they presented to the 
Legislature a petition for a redress of their grievances. This 
is herewith given, with the names attached, as a graphic recital 
of the perils and trials to which they Avere subjected. 

To His Honour Spencer Phipps Esq Lieut Govr &c, The Honourable His Majesty's 

Council, and the Honble House of Ileprcsentatives in Gen. Court Convened at 

Boston 

Petition of a number of the Proprietors of West Hoosuck in behalf of ourselves 
and divers others of the Proprietors of West Hoosuck Humbly Sheweth : 

That your Honours Petitioners Have Built a Sufficient Block-house in said town- 
ship agreeable to the orders of the Government which will be of Special Service in 
order to bring forward a Settlement in said place if we can but Support our Hold 
which we trust we Could Well Do, Had we but a little more Strength and a Suffi- 
cient Quantity of Stores within our walls. But since we are allowed but Ten men 
and all our stores to fitch from fort massachusetts or to subsist our Selves without 
aney allowance from the Government the matter is somewhat Precarious — for dur- 
ing the Perilous Season the Sumcr Past we with our teams was under a Necessity 
of taking one Part of them and to turn out and go to fort massachusetts once in 14 
days for our Subsistence — Nor could wc prevail with Capt Wyman to Let us Have 



any inure llmu 11 Days allowance at a time ami tlmn st;iy until that was allinn^t jron 
before II(! wonhl Let lis Have any more — so that many tini(>8 wc lui'l Ilnd not a 
Days allowanee in the fort at a time wlien we had Keason to think we nh 'uUl he nt- 
taeked by the I",r.tniy Daly by the frequent decoveries wc made of them. — Wcliavo 
made application to Major AVilliauis as wc under Stood lie wns ordered by the 
(iovernnient to Sub.iist us, & likewise to Col Isearl Willianifl and to tho 
Comascary Gcnei-el, But all to no purjiose a.s we apprehend, for the Last Stores 
wc went for wc Could not Get but 14 ])ays allowance, and a Number of us 
Have not Had any bread for three weeks pa.<t, only what we are foro-d to Provide 
lor our Selves. Your Poor Petitioners Humbly Prays that your Honours in 
your fcreat Wisdom & jroodness would Consider our Distrcst C'ireumstancei«, and 
if your Hours in frreut wisdom can Sot! litt we Pray that wc may be allowed twenty 
more men to be added to our Xuinber, as wc arc tho most remoat and mo.«t Exposed 
of aney Place in the (jovcrnment, and that we yr Hours Petitioners that arc not 
already in the Pay and Subsistence of tin; government may be some of those that 
juay be ]iu( in, and that wc may be allowed the Liberty of Subsisting our Selves 
and be allowed therefor the Scamc Consideration that is allowed the Comaserey for 
Hoosuck, for as there is a number of us Have our familys Hear wc must Provide 
for them, and with a little more expense we could Subsist our Selves also, and could 
wc but obtain leave therefor it woold Be a fjrcat Incouragoment Settlors to come for 
it woold Provide a suflicient Store of I'rovision in tho Winter Season, so that we 
miirlit not be laved under aney obliiration of turninpr out in the Perilous Season — 
furthermore oiir allowance is but Small and not SufKeicnt to live on, for we receive 
but tivfc lbs and a half of flour for Seven Days allowance of IJrcad and six pounds 
and '2 ounces of pork pr week and six frills of rum for Seven days and half a point 
of pease pr Day wine measure, which is the Whole that wc get as allowance, and if 
aney man is gon from the fort on what ocasion So Ever He Hiri.'s His Duty Done 
and looses His Subsistanee, for notwithstanding a mans Doing His Duty ('apt Wy- 
man stopes all his allowance so many Days as He is abccnt, and wc IJy no means 
might be allowed to make Known our Canmmstances to the Honourable Court but 
our othccrs Wholy ref\iscd us that Liberty, but now at Last we have obtained a fur. 
lofc (furlough) for one man, he not knowing our Design, but notwithstanding his 
furlo He must Hire his Duty Don at the fort and Loose His Subsist;inec. Wc fur- 
thermore Pray that we might Have an oflicer amonst our Selves one that would Do 
us Justice and lett us Have what is allowed by the government and not put it in to 
his own pocket, thus your Hours petitioners Humbly beg that your Honours would 
do for us as in your great wisdoD> & goodness you sec Best, and your petitioners as 
in Duty bound shall cvey pray — 

N B All the assertions in tho Bovc writcn Petition Can and may be proved by 
able witness at the Desire or by order of the Honrble Court — 

SAMUEL KELLOGG SETH HUDSON 

NEHEMIAH SMEDLY WILLIAM HORSFOIID 

JONATHAN KILBOKN ISAAC VANAUENEM 

SOLOMON BUELL JOSIAII HORSFOUD 

SETH KENT • JOHN HOUSEOllD 

ELISHA HKiGiyS ISAAC SEAUL 

JOSIAII DEAN Jii TYKAS PKATT 

ELNATHAN ASHMUN GIDEON WAKIIIN 

NOAH PRATT WILLIAM CHIDESTER Jlnr 

JABEZ WARRIN AIICHELAUS TEMPLE 

JE8SE SAWYER 



In- Iloisr. RErs Jax'y 11. l?;''?— 
Hcnd find Ortl.tnl, That Mr Lyman and Capt llichardson with sucli as the 
Honblc IJoard sh:ill jniu Lc a CDmmince to eonsidr;!- tliis rct;ticn, to repair to IIoo- 
suck to examine yc state of ye forts there, and eonsidtr whether it he most expedi- 
ent to Repair Fort Jlassaehusetts & to Keep a (Harrison there and at the Blotk- 
house, or to build anew elsewhere, & that the Comtee inquire into the Facts al- 
lotted in the Pet'tion & hear ye parties, and are hereby impowcrcd to take Evidences 
relative thereto on oath, and report. 

Also Voted, That the Ten Jiien stationed at AVest Iloosuck, as wilUin mentioned, 
bo allowed to Billet themselves at yo charge of the Province until the further order 
of this Court, provided they do not charge more than five shillings and four pence 

pr week for each man. 

Sent up for Concurrence 

T. IIUBBAUD Spkr 

In- Couxcil 11 J.vxv 17')7. 

Head 6: Concurred & James Minot B^q is joined in the affiiir. 

A. OLIVER, Secy 

Consented to S. PIIIPPS— 

For some unexplained reason the commiltce tluis appointed did 
not act, Avhereiipou Hudson, in Lulialf of the petitioners, on tlie 
22d of April, presented the following : 

Province ot the ) To the Honble his majesty's Council and the Ilonble House of 
l>Iassachusetts Bay I Kepresenta lives. 

The Petition of Seth Hudson, Humbly Shewcth 
Whereas Josiali Horsford, and others. Proprietors and Inhabitants of West IIoo- 
suck, on the Stb day of Jany last prcsc) ted a memorial and Petition to this Ilonble 
Court, representing their grievances, and praying relief, and the Court was pleased, 
on the llth of Jany, to grant ns the libertj-^ of Billeting ourselves, and also to ap- 
point a Committee to repair to West Iloosuck, and examine the truth of our Com- 
jikiint, but it hath so happened that the Committee hath not yet been there — 

Your Petitioner humbly prays; That the Committee appointed, or any other 
Committee, be directed to repair to West Hoosuck, and view our situation and cir- 
cumstances, which when ju.stly represented to your honours, will we doubt not, 
meet with due encouragement, as it is the most exposed of any upon the western 
Frontiers, and the properest place to make a stand against the Enemy — 
Your Petitioner as in duty bound shall pray &c 

SETH HUDSON 
Commanding Officer at West Hoosuck 
Boston 2'2d Atiui. 1757 

Ix CovxciL Arrai, 25. 17o7 

Road and ordered that Timothy Woodbridgo Esq, of Stockbridge with such as 

the Honble House shall joynbe aCointeo to take the Petition above referred to into 

Consideration, Repair to Hoosuck to Examine the state of the Forts there, and 

Consider whether it be most Expedient to Repair Fort Massachusetts, to keep a 

Garrison there and at the Block-house, or to build Elsewhere ; That the sd Comtee 

inquire into the Facts alledg'd, hear the Parties, and they me hereby Impowcred to 

take Evidence relative thereto on oath. 

Sent down for Concurrence 

A. OLIVER Secy 
In the House of Reps April 25, 1757 

Read and Concurred, and Coll. I^Iorey & Capt Livermore are Joined in the affair 

T. HUBBARD S'k'r 



55 

y\r. Woudbr'ulgc and his associates at once " rcpaiicd" to tlic 
western frontier, exaniiiuMl into the ftatc of atVairs there, an<l 
made a full report which is i;iven l)elo\v together with t)>e action 
of the General Court tliercon. 

No artillery ha<l as yet been allowed at the block-house, and a 
second petition was presented therefi>r, and also for the servieea 
of a chaplain. 

I'rovinrc of the ) t ti rr i i i ■ ir • *«< /-' _ -i 
Mass. J5ny ) •' 

Tho pftitii(n of Soi'i Hudson of Wist Iloosutk, in bchulf of flic Inhaliitants 
there — Humbly Blicwith: 

That the Tilock-housc at "W. Iloosuck i.s, hy tho continuoil labors of the Inhabi- 
tants made very strou^r, and greatly iinjirovid by additional works, so a.s to be the 
Htronjrcst Fort on the Western Frontier, well situated for a Barrier, and will proba- 
bly ."!avc in a short time, jrreat charjr'.' to thi; Government by its l>ein^ in a Town- 
iiliiji of tlio tinest land in the Province, which will soon fill with People, many of 
the Proprietors beinj,' in Connecticut, and others from that Colony being dcnirous 
of settling there; but wo are wholly without artillery. 

They therefore humbly pray your Honours would grant such a part of the artil- 
lery from Fort Massaclius(tts, with Powder, Shott, & Shidls, with other neccssaryu, 
ns may be suitable for defeudinp: tho Pilock-house. And if a Chaplain should be ap- 
))oiuteJ this summer for Fort Mass. wc leg wo may likewise have the privihjje of 
liis preaching with us, a favour we have not liitherto enjoyed, tho but four miles 
distant from Fort Massachusetts. 

Your Petitioner as in Duty bound, shall ever Pray &c. 

SKTH HUDSON 
Commanding Officer of AVcst Hoosuck 
rrcsentcd. J^Iay 17J7 
The artillery in Fort Mas.sa are "j 
3 — 4 Pounders | 

1 — tleld piece )■ 

2 — Swivells I 

2 — Cohorn mortars — J 

In reply to this request one of the "four potuiders," and two 
swivels, nanied in the above memorandum, were sent to the block- 
house. 

The Comtee appointed to repair to Hoosuck to examine t^ e sta^e of the forts there 
and to consider tho eoinpl.-iints eontained in a petition Exhibited by Sundry persona 
of West Hoosuik, 

Are of the opinion that the fort Called the Massaehupefts being: placed and buiU 
where it is was owinp: to the want of a bolter aivjuaintanee of the .'tate. Situation 
and Cireunistanecs of that part of the province. 

The Comteo Humbly conceive that the {ivcat ends and desi^rns of the Govern- 
mni.t in being at the Expense of fortifying and maintaining a garrison there was to 
]iro!iiote and bring forward settlements in that exj os'd & unsettled part of the pro- 
vince, and to be a protection to such .i-s would bring forward .Settlements, and in 
some measure a defence to the Settlements below, by diverting, discovouring, an- 
noying v^ giving intelligence of the approach of tlic Enemy. And if those things 
wiri; the pni-pose of tb.c Government (he Comtee arc of opinion that the said fort is 



oG 

not so Suitably and convcuicntly situated to answer those Ends as nii^lit be in seme 
other place. For by the best information it aj-pcars that the enemies chief gang- 
way to the western frontiers iii about the west part of the west Township. The 
Comtce upon a carcfuU E.\amination of the Condition of the .said fort find it much 
decayed, but still in such condition as may answer for a while the purjioses of a 
garrison without cost to repair it 

The Coiiitec upon a view of the Fort or block-house Erected in the west Town- 
ship find it a place of considerable strenj^th and tolarable situation, and with some 
additional building and properly man'd it would be in a conditi ni of being main- 
tained against a considerable! force. And altho the fortress is not built on the 
Square yet it is so near that it will accomodate the Settlers almost as well, and with 
the addition of Barracks or Stockades from the block-house to the top of thb 
iiii.i., ABOi'T SEVEN KODS, with a mount at ye end of the said Barracks or Stock- 
ades OK .SAID uu.Jj, the whole will be as well situated for defence as any place the 
Comteo could discover. ' 

The Cointee having Examinee! into the grounds of the Complaints in the said pe- 
tition commitfcd to their Consideration are of the ojiinion that the comjjlaints Ex- 
hibited in Said petition are well .supported Excepting the change of the Subsistence 
being withheld on all occasions ^yhen any soldiar is absent from the fort. For it 
appeared to the Comtce that when any soldier is sent on an express his Subsistence 
is not withheld. The Comtce are also of opinion that the adding of twenty more 
men to thg ten at the block-house or fort in the west Township would be of public 
service. 

All which is Humbly submitted 

TIMO WOODBRIDGE 
SAMUEL LIVERMORE 
MOSES MARCY 
Stockuriuge June 10. 1757 

In the HotsF of Rep's January 10. 1758 
Read, and Voted, That this report be accepted so far as it relates to Fort Massa- 
chusetts and the block-liou.se at West Iloosuck 

Sent up for concurrence 

T. HUBBARD Spkr 
In Council Janv 10. 17-38 

Read and Concurred 

A OLIVER Secy 

That part of the above report Avhich related to the conduct of 
Capt. Wyman, the commander at Fort Massachusetts, Maj. Elijali, 
the commissary, and Col. IsraeJ Williams, the commander of the 
western department, together with the memorials of each of these 
officers, were referred to a new committee to make furtlier and 
more thorough investigations. 

A large mass of testimony was taken, including numerous depo- 
sitions, in support of and in opposition to the complaints of the 
petitioners ; and after a full examination the committee made a 
report, that the complaints, with one or two exceptions, as to the 
conduct of Capt. Wyman, were not proved. 

J3nt the times of trial and danger for the hardy pioneers of our 



57 

to^'ii were drawing to a close. The war was soon to l>c trans- 
ferred from tlic banks of tlic Iloosic and the Connecticut to tliose 
of the St. Lawrence. The footsteps of the Indian warrior were 
no more seen witliin our borders, and the frontier settlements 
thenceforward had rest and peace. 



CORRESPONDENCE, &c. 



The following letters were called forth by the invitation sent 
abroad by the committee to former residents of Williamstown 
to unite in the celebration of the centennial. They were not 
written with the expectation that they Avonld be pnblished. But 
the committee have thought that the great ends of the celebration 
would be more perfectly attained by giving them a permanent 
form in the published proceedings of the day. 

12 West 29tu SritiiET, New Yokk, Not. 9, 18G.5. 
Dr. H. L. S.viiix,— My Deaii Sik :— 

Your.s of the 6tli came to hand last evening?. It took us by surpri»o, but ^r0 
phoulJ be dclii^htcd to be with you on the 19th, if it were po.--sible. Wc hare talked 
it over and tried to make it .so, but wc are gettinjj old and neither Mi-s. Peters nor 
myself feel quite able to brave the journey at this season, and I am pledired to somo 
other cnfraj;ements about that time which I cannot well forogo. On the whole, 
we feel obliged to deny ourselves the coveted pleasure. 

The occasion, we have no doubt, would be one of great interest to us, as well as to 
the natives of Williamstown. The thought is a good one, and the selection of Mr. 
Noble as the Historian for the occasion is admirable. Our hearts will be with you 
and we shall hope for the best results from so genial a gathering on one of the way- 
marks of time. Our best love to your family and other friends. 

I write by the hand of another, for reasons which you understand, and remain 

Very cordially yours, 
_ A. PETERS. 



UXIVEUSITY AT LEWISliVUG, PeNX., NoV. 14, I8G0. 

My Dear Sir:— 

Your note informing me of the intended commemoration at Williamstown was 
was duly received, having been forwarded to me from my late residence. I need 
not say to you how happy I shoul 1 be to attend and take part. From the time 
# when I first heard that a celebration was contemplated, I looked forward to it with 
great pleasure, not allowing myself to doubt that I should be there, if it were ]ihys- 
ically possible. But my duties here have been too recently assumed and are too 
engrossing to permit me to be absent at this time. I cannot tell you how greatly I 
regret this. My heart will be there. I suppose that every thoughtful person has 
a very special interest in the place of his birth and education. But wo may bo 



59 

pcrniittod to ln,)k with no rnmninn int<n\st t\n<\ •rvrtlitmlc upon our old lionip. Tho 
nssdciation.s }Ii:it liiiul our liciirfu to old Williain.stown, 1 am suic, can noviT let jro 
tliiir liold. I 111';; you to ounvfv tlu? <•.\jlr^•.s^ion of my very cordial r<j;iird.s to your 
nillca^-uis of tin; comiiiittpc, and to tin so — cviry year j^rowinj^ fewer — l-y wliniii 1 
shall be liii.ss, d. _ 

I remain, us over, Yi.ur I'liend and Olit. S.rv't, 

LUCIUS K. SMITH. 
1)11. II. L. S.via.N. 



MoNHoi;, Nov. V2, 1SG.3. 
Mv Di;.vu Hiioiiii.ii : — 

I .siiw in the New York Oh.-^crvcr, a day or two since a notice of tho ccr.ttnniul < « 1- 
chration in our dear (dd native town, of its lir.-^t selthniint and the ordination nt 
the fir.-<t Pastor, and an invitation lo all who were horn there, now seattt red ovtr 
tilt" broad land, to riturn and revit.'W with them the meiiiorios (d'the j)ast,«nd unite 
with them in a prayer meetinj?' on Ihe evcnin^r of that day (the 19fh in.stanf ) I 
certainly consider myself a.s embraced within that call — my.self ahi'ady in the .leiir 
and yellow leaf of lil'o— j>o many yojirs away, 1 need not tell y(ni what plmsuro it 
Would give nu> to bo thtro and meet you and otliers, and partieulaily on that occa- 
sion. 

One huiiclred years a;,'o I They Tnust iudted have bi en a little Land, fi eble aud 
few, who stood around their Piustor ut the laying on of hanils upon his devoted 
head. ISut they fidt the value of that niini.-'try, and of that Book which brings 
life and inmortalify to light, and which breathes of that charity which .-eekefh not 
her own. One hundred years I Tho hc;uls of tho.se vcneriiblo nu-n who were activo 
in tho fonuatiou <.f that chundi and society have been laid low. To conns down 
within my own recollection, old Doet. I'itidi, llev. Mr. King, Doct. Grillin, Ilev. 
Mr. Gridley, and the Deacons Stratton, Ford, Suu'dlcy, Skinner and our ow n hon- 
ored fatlnsr, the AVhitinans and other active and intelligent nieiubers of that church 
and society, whose voi<-e.s have so often been heard at tljo church conference meet- 
ings, and were once so familiar to us, where ax*e they ;■' Each year in its revolution 
Las tiiken them from our sight, and some who perhaps may yet remaiu stand bend- 
ing over the entrance to their final risting place, and .soon will glide as shadows 
from our sight. I love my native town, 1 love her people, it seems to nin like holy 
ground. It has always seemed to mc, that a place where so many grand enterprise 
have originated, so much prayer been oll'ered, so many good and Indy men lived 
and died, must always be greatly blessed of God. The inlluences of that ehnrch 
and that college have beeu felt in the rcmeti'st corners of the eai-tli, and given wings 
to many mcsseugtirs of peace, who have made glad the hearts of many dtstiluto 
heathen, and many broken hearted .suppliant-s at the cross. 1 believe the Pa.'-tors of 
that church have always endeavored to lead their people to tho lloek on which they 
could build for eternity. The descendants of ^uch sires need never be ashamed, or 
afraid of being left out in the cold. Who would not love to live there, who would 
not love to die aud be buried there, amidst that people, among those hilLs, and take 
part with them in the great resurrection? I find it very dillieult, my dear brother, 
to resist that call to praj-cr from my kindred in uiy native town. I should love to 
be there, and mingle my jioor prayer with you on that delightful occasion, but th.o 
time nece.s.sai ily spent in going and coming so long a distance involves too much for 
luc to spare at this time. May God be with you and bless you tliere. 

We are all pretty well — uiy love to all my kindred and friends. 

Alfectionatcly your I5roihev, 

(.'IIAKI. KS NODLE. 

Rnv. M.v^.oN Nym.r., Wii.li.vm.s:o\vx, M.vss. 



GO 



LIST OF SUBSCRIBEES TO THE CONGREGATIONAL CTIUIICTI OF 
■SVILLlAMbTOWN. 

Wo wliose names arc hereunto subscribed do severally promise and ag:rcc to pay 
unto such persons as a majority of the subscribers shall ajipoint a coiumittcc to re- 
ceive the same, the several sums set aj^ainst our names respectively — to be applied 
to the purpose of erecting a house of public worship on the eminence where the old 
meeting house now stands in ■NVilliamstown. The money so subscribed to be paid 
at such time or times, and the house to be built of such dimensions and upon such 
model as the majority of the subscribers shall direct. 

SErrKMLER 2i:"th, 1796. 





£ s. d. 




f 8. d. 


T. I. & B. Skinners 


100 


James Greene 


3-0-0 


AVilliain Hamilton 


2.5-0-0 


William T. uncr 


15-0-0 


Eli Cotton 


4-10-0 


Asa Ku.-^sell 


10-0-0 


0. Barri* 


20-0-0 


Josiah Wright 3d 


3-0-0 


Shubael Wilnmrth 


9-0-0 


Stephen Hickox 


10-0 


S.amuul Sloan 


60-0-0 


N. Chamberlain 


15-0-0 


11. Sheldon 


15-0-0 


D. & Dca. Noble 


80-0-0 


Daniel Day 


40-0-0 


Z. Forad 


12-0-0 


C. Baker 


25-0-0 


Josiah Wright, Jr. 


5-0-0 


A. Uarrison 


12-0-0 


J. & T. Meacham 


34-0-0 


C. Sabin 


16-0 


Wm. Foster 


15-0-0 


E. Cotton, Jr. 


8-0-0 


Wm. Wells 


20-0-0 


Abram Stark« 


1-10-0 


Wm. Smith 


9-0-0 


S. Kellogg 


2.5-0-0 


T. Boardnisn 


6 


I. Day 


12-0-0 


Sanb'l Sattcrlce 


3 


L. & E. Smedlcy 


60-0-0 


Ezekicl Burk 


1 10 


II. Richardson 


5-0-0 


T. & D. Smith 


12 


E. Mathor 


1.5-0-0 


Jacob Bacon 


12 


Corporation 


100-0-0 


Chas. Bulkier, Jr. 


9 


Dan'l Dewey 


1.5-0-0 


Rev. Seth Swift 


15 


Aaron Footc 


3 0-0 


Jas. Mcacham 


6 


Stephen Patchen 


1-10-0 


Barth. Woodcock 


30 


Barney McMan 


2-10-0 


Absalom Blair 


12 


Tim'y Northam 


9-0-0 


Warren Roberts 


2 


Dan'l Foote 


2-0-0 


John Sweet 


6 


Lemuel Stewart 


75-0-0 


Isaac Sherwood 


10 


Ebenezcr Stratton 


20-0-0 


Wm. Sloan 


3 


William Young 


20-0-0 


Dan'l Burbank 


4 


W. Starkweather 


20-0-0 


Joscjih Osborn 


7 10 


David Johnson 


20-0-0 


John Douning 


6 10 


Lsaac Miller 


0-12-0 


Amza Smith 


2 10 9 


Samuel Iliggins 


15-0-0 


Thomas Bishop 


12 


Tim'y Balch 


9-0-0 


Jcdidiah Stone 


1 4 


rirly Putnam 


20-0-0 


Jeremiah Smith 


1 4 


■Tos'h Balch 


8-0-0 


Jos'h Talmage & Son 


20 


Jona. Danforth 


22-0-0 


Constant William 


10 


Stephen Scott 


5-0-0 


Sam'l Tyler 


15 


Pardon Starks 


1-10-0 


Reuben Scaley 


10 


Benj'n Sim ends 


6-0-0 


Jonathan Bridges 


15 


Elijah Thomas 


8-0-0 


Lewis Tousant 


14 


Soloman Woolcot 


7-0-0 


Jas. Fowler 


10 


Elisl\a Williams 


15-0-0 


Abial Hawkins 


10 


Nathaniel Kellogg 


10-0-0 


Nchemiah Woodcock 


10 


Nathan Smith 


6-0-0 


Joel Baldwin 


20 


Amount, £1,36? U 9. 










vf 



^^^- 






L 



■ I 



[irn 



< 



CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE, 



OEUVERED IN 



WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS., 



NOVEMBER 10, 1865, 



MASON NOBLE. 



1> 




NORTH ADAMS, MASS: 
.lAMES T. ROltlNSON »^ CO., PniMEHS 



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